


The First Contact War

by IIonezerozero



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Mass Effect
Genre: Crossover, First Contact War, Gen, Post-Game: Halo 4
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:08:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24090337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IIonezerozero/pseuds/IIonezerozero
Summary: A crossover fiction where the Systems Alliance is replaced by the Post Human-Covenant war UNSC.Expect the following:Spartan IVs VS Elcor "living tanks"Anlace class frigates, 1 heavily modified Punic class super-carrier, and 1 heavily modified Vindication light-battleship VS the Hierarchy fleetA Volus Spectre
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	1. Si vis pacem, para bellum

** -UNSC ADMIRAL JON GRISSOM 2156 CE **

“Men and women of the UNSC. This is Rear Admiral Jon Grissom of the UNSC Dawn-breaker. 4 years ago, a branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence, SIGNIT detected an instability in the orbit of the planet Shanxi. As many of you know, Shanxi is the first new planet to be colonized by the UNSC since the Human-Covenant war and stands as a symbol progression instead of rebuilding. Fearing that the planet itself may have become unsuitable for colonization, SIGNIT research vessels investigated the source of this instability. After 2 years, every gravitational body within the sector was investigated, and deemed unrelated to the instability of Shanxi’s orbit. This left 2 possible causes for the anomaly; an after effect of reconciliation caused by the frequent slip-space transits that occurred during the initial colonization effort, or a source of dark energy unknown to man.

For all our friends in the marine corps, reconciliation is the greatest limiting factor of slip-space travel. Opening a portal to a different dimension and sending a small asteroid’s worth of mass in the form of ships and supplies across space beyond the speed of light tends to disgruntle the laws of physics. This puts a heavy restriction in both the frequency, distance, and size of the ships that we can send through slip-space.

If the problems at Shanxi were directly related to the usage of slip-space, it would have endangered not only Shanxi, but every planet the UNSC has travelled to, including Earth.

Thankfully, SIGNIT astronomers were able to detect a gravitational anomaly approximately 2 AUs, that’s twice the distance from the Sun to the Earth for our friends in the marine corps, from Shanxi and discovered this object.

What you see before you is the source of the gravitational anomaly. A 15km long object, with what appears to be a planetoid sized control moment gyroscope surrounding a core of material composed of a previously unknown material.

We call it the Mass Relay.

This Relay is one of at least 2 objects located 10kilo-light years(klys) apart.

For reference, the milky-way galaxy is anywhere from 150 to 250 klys long, depending on whether you measure from the tip of the arm.

I will be honest with all of you. As a form of faster than light travel, comparing the Mass Relays to our Shaw-Fujikawa Trans-light Engines is like comparing a propeller plane with a GA-TL1 Longsword.

Although this discovery has great potential, they also pose a serious threat.

Until now, conventional space-warfare was based on the assumption that all faster than light travel would be conducted via slip-space, allowing us to determine when and where enemy ships would appear due to both the radiation flares that occur upon exiting slip-space, and the limiting effects of reconciliation; restricting the distance and location ships can appear.

These Mass Relays blow this assumption out of the water. Ships using these Mass Relays can travel far further than we have ever imagined, with no sign of having done so.

This is troubling to the UNSC for 3 reasons.

First, should Covenant Remnants discover and gain control of a Mass Relay, it is possible for them to retreat beyond it, escaping our Swords of Sanghelios allies. Should they do so, it is possible that they may rebuild their ships and weapons, and either restart the Human-Covenant war, or reach one of the 4 remaining Halos still unsecured by the UNSC.

Second, the aliens that built the Mass Relays are much more mobile than us, or the Covenant, meaning they can access more planets and more resources than humanity. The UNSC cannot fight a war of attrition with the current Covenant Remnant, and whatever aliens exists beyond these Mass Relays will certainly have more resources than them. Additionally, although the main function of the Mass Relays appears to be transport, as many of you know, a MAC is simply a means of transport for a tungsten slug to its intended target. Thankfully, it appears this Mass Relay can only send objects to its sister relay, meaning Earth and her colonies are safe; for now.

Thirdly, we have long assumed that should a Flood outbreak occur, our ability to detect slip-space exits would allow us to detect where it had spread, giving us time to quarantine, and destroy the infection. Failing that, rapidly entering and exiting slip-space in an area would cause a build-up of reconciliation, preventing all slip-space travel in the area, slowing the progression of the Flood. This would either buy us time to regroup and combat the Flood, or if no other alternative exits, give us time to evacuate to the Ark and fire the Halo array.

The existence of the Mass Relays puts these plans in jeopardy, meaning there is only one solution. Every Mass Relay must be located, and either be put under UNSC control or destroyed.

As the UNSC barely has the ships to protect our colonies from Remnant splinter fleets and Kig-Yar pirates, controlling every Mass Relay cannot be done with our existing space assets. However, simply destroying every Mass Relay is not an option. As a form of transport, they have immense potential to accelerate colonization efforts, and assist in the location and acquisition of the remaining 4 Halo arrays not under UNSC control.

As a compromise, it was determined that the Mass Relay near Shanxi, now called the Shanxi-Theta Relay would remain active, and its sister Relay the Theta Relay would be experimented on to find a way to disable the Mass Relay, should it become a threat.

On February 5th, 2156 Operation Roadblock was launched with 2 UNSC Charon-class light-frigates; the Giovanni, and Hyugens, accompanied by civilian research vessels; the Noli, Desio, and Cabot. This expeditionary flotilla would travel through the Shanxi-Theta Relay with the experimental transport ship the UNSC Kefitzat-Haderech.

Outfitted with 6 Series VI CODEN Shaw-Fujikawa drives, the Kefitzat-Haderech could open slip-space portals for both itself and the other ships for a slow but certain return to Shanxi in the event they successfully disabled the Mass Relay, trapping them on other side.

On March 25th, 14:30, after conducting multiple tests with both the light MACs of the Giovanni and Hyugens, Archer missiles, and a hyperion nuclear missile, it was determined that destroying the Mass Relay with our conventional weaponry was impossible. Our guns didn’t even scratch the paint job. However, it was discovered that a nuclear detonation near the gyroscope would disable the Relay.

Unfortunately, probes sent through the Shanxi-Theta Relay have found that this is only temporary, and only prevents the affected Mass Relay from sending things through. Its sister relay can still operate without issue. This means that disabling the Shanxi-Theta Relay only prevents us from going through it, but whoever controls the Theta Relay can still come through to us.

Having successfully found a way to disable the Mass Relay, but with no knowledge that it was temporary, the UNSC Kefitzat-Haderech activated its Shaw-Fujikawa drives to return itself and the other ships to Shanxi.

At 15:06, 5 vessels of unknown origin appeared 100,000 kms away from the dorsal side of the flotilla before opening fire on the Kefitzat-Haderech with projectile weaponry similar to our MACs but with 10 times the projectile velocity. The Kefitzat-Haderech was instantly destroyed, torn to shreds by the collapse of the slip-space portal it was making. The collapsed portal also sent out an electromagnetic and radioactive shockwave through all the ships surrounding it. The MACs of the Giovanni and Hyugens were rendered inoperable, and both ships were destroyed soon after from a combination of fire from the enemies’ main guns, and slow torpedo like projectiles that deflected both our missile defense vehicles and point defense fire. The civilian ships; Noli and Cabot, were also lost to enemy ship fire, while the Desio was boarded and captured by enemy forces.

As I have said before, the UNSC cannot sustain a prolonged engagement with another alien race, neither can it ignore the existence of hostile aliens in possession of a Mass Relay.

To further complicate things, ONI has confirmed that the region of space surrounding the Theta Relay is projected to have a Halo somewhere in it.

As you may imagine, the idea of a hostile alien race we have no knowledge of being in control of a Forerunner superweapon is keeping a lot of people in Fleet-Command up at night.

This is where we come in. Due to the limited resources the UNSC has, we will be the one and only fleet to be dispatched through the Shanxi-Theta Relay. Our goals are simple.

In order of importance.

Recover the Theta Relay and put it under UNSC control.

Find the Halo located in alien space and ensure no aliens take control of it.

Recover the Desio and any surviving personnel.

And finally, destroy any and all space assets these aliens have, both to prevent retaliation, and to reduce the chances of them finding Halo.

I won’t lie. This will be a dangerous mission within enemy territory. There will be no reinforcements, no space stations, or colonies to fall back on. The only support you will have will be the men and women serving beside you.

Yet, humanity has endured far worse before. We endured against the Covenant, the Flood, and the Didact. Each time we stood our ground as the enemy crashed down upon us, like Persian arrows upon the shields of the Spartans during the Battle of Thermopylae. Each time, as our enemies broke themselves upon us, we grew stronger, adapted, and incorporated their strengths into ourselves.

Our ships can now stand toe-to-toe with their Covenant counterparts. Forerunner alloys, shields, and hard-light barriers reinforce our hulls; strengthened by human designed heat dissipation gels layers and ablative ceramic plating. The feared energy projectors previously possessed only by the Covenant, now fire from our Anlace-class frigates. Spartan super-soldiers, once limited to a single platoon, now serve by the thousands!

We are the UNSC, and we will not fail Earth! As long as there is a single breath in our bodies, and a bullet in our guns we will fight to protect our homes and our families!

Men and women of the UNSC! We will go through the Mass Relay! We will secure the Halo! And we will bring our people home!

For Earth!

For the UNSC!

For Humanity!”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

** -HIERARCHY SENIOR SHIP MASTER AUVUS VITANIUS 2157 CE **

“Soldiers of Palaven. I address you here today to bring grim tidings. 9 months ago, the 57th patrol flotilla discovered an unknown alien flotilla composed of 2 cruiser class vessels, a heavy cruiser, and 3 corvettes near a previously inactive Mass Relay. As decreed by the Council in 800 CE in conjunction with the Citadel Conventions, the unsanctioned reactivation of an inert Mass Relay is a capital offense, and any crewmen aboard a ship that does such a thing can be sentenced to life imprisonment, or its equivalent for their government. As such, should any Council aligned military vessel discover a ship attempting to reactivate a Mass Relay, they may employ lethal force as a last resort to stop them.

Upon decelerating from light speed, Ship Master Volutus Ignasio and the 57th observed the alien flotilla fire a nuclear weapon at the Element Zero core of the Mass Relay attempting to destroy it. Not only that, but these ships then activated a device that released a massive radiation flare, possibly a weapon of some kind.

Although Mass Relays are theoretically indestructible, should one be destroyed projections of the ensuing release of dark energy predict that the explosion would rival that of the largest supernovae observed; destroying entire systems.

The 57th engaged and destroyed the ship causing the radiation flare, resulting in the release of a massive burst of radioactive and electromagnetic waves, incapacitating the remaining alien ships allowing the 57th to destroy four vessels, and capture one of their corvettes.

Although military action of such force for a first contact may be frowned upon, the dangers posed by a violent race of aliens capable of reactivating Mass Relays far outweighs whatever diplomatic damage may be done.

As you all know, once activated no Council species has the ability to shut down a Mass Relay. It is because of this that the Mass Relays, for all the boons and riches they have granted us, are one of the most dangerous Prothean artifacts ever discovered. Once a Mass Relay is reactivated, there is no way to stop whatever is on the other side from crossing over. This was a harsh lesson for us during the Rachni wars and is the reason for the severity of punishment for ships that reactivate Mass Relays; for a single ship could end life in Council space as we know it.

Now, these aliens have opened a door into the unknown that can never be closed, and it is now our job to hold back whatever comes out the from beyond the Mass Relay.

Thankfully, although capable of activating Mass Relays, and possessing Tier IV WMDs; these aliens have no understanding of the Mass Effect itself. No kinetic barriers were observed on any of the ships, and the enemy used what appear to be archaic projectile weapons using chemical propellants and primers. This gives us a massive advantage over these aliens in both space and ground warfare; an advantage that will only disappear with time.

In order to prevent the further loss of life, both alien and Council, we must subjugate this new race and bring it under our control.

This operation will be led by myself and the 30th fleet, headed by the dreadnaught Perpetual.

Our mission is simple. We will cross through the Mass Relay and establish a base of operations. From there, we will subjugate every alien colony we encounter, and push to the enemy home world while recovering any Prothean artifacts in the possession of, or undiscovered by these aliens.

This mission may not end quickly. We have no knowledge of what lies beyond the Mass Relay, and no idea how far the aliens are spread. Yet, we will prevail, for we are Turians! We are the Councils sword and shield! We are the first to enter battle and the last to retreat!

Our mettle has been tested, time and time again. We destroyed the dissent among us during the unification wars. We earned our place in the galaxy when we crushed the Krogan rebellions! Our fleets are the greatest of all council races. Our dreadnaughts, the symbol of the Council’s power, act as the raised fist to be brought down on any fool that would dare to disturb Council peace. Every man woman and child; every species sleeps easy knowing that the vigilant eyes of the Hierarchy watches over them.

We will restore peace to this sector and bring it with us to this new species.

For the Hierarchy!

For our Ancestors!

For Palaven!


	2. The Mission

**-UNSC PUNIC-CLASS SUPER-CARRIER DAWN-BREAKER 2156 CE**

“Rear Admiral Grissom, I see you’ve done a good job of rallying the troops.”

A hologram appeared on the bridge terminal as soon as Grissom finished his speech. He smiled lightly. Nothing got past the Fleet Admiral; 68 years old and still as sharp as a knife.

“Lord Hood, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood smirked once before returning it to his usual grim scowl.

“As important as morale is, I would have saved such a speech for when we actually move through the Relay.”

Grissom winced internally. What Lord Hood said was true. They were still several months away from using the Mass Relay. He, and the captains who would be serving under him had only just received their marching orders from Fleet-Command. Still, he had decided to give the speech regardless. The preparation of a campaign was just as important as its execution, after all.

“Better to have the men motivated during the more boring parts of the job, Fleet Admiral. Gun fire and explosions should be enough to keep their adrenaline going during combat.”

“True enough. How are the preparations going?”

“My captains and I are currently en route to Shanxi to re-supply and repair our ships. We deployed all our land-based assets to the colonies we were patrolling to shore up their defenses until a different fleet can replace us, so we’ll need to acquire additional ground troops and equipment, as well as transports and space fighters.”

“Any fire bases?”

“No sir, we deployed all available pods and D20 Herons to the colonies but have no plans for resupplying them. Our mission demands mobility, and the Dawn-breaker is the only ship in the fleet capable of deploying them. A lengthy ground game that keeps our ships occupied over a single world is off the table.”

“Good to see you’ve done your homework.” Lord Hood nodded. “If we can’t win the ground game in the opening push, do not engage.”

“Understood, Fleet Admiral.”

Defeat in Detail A.K.A. Divide and Conquer. A military tactic when faced with overwhelming forces. The UNSC had much practice using it against the Covenant. It didn’t matter how outnumbered you were, as long as you defeated them one by one.

“You’re going to have to shoot and scoot for every engagement. When I said there would be no reinforcements during the first mission briefing, I meant there would be NO reinforcements. Every ship you lose is one less you’ll have until you find the Halo.”

Halo. The real primary objective of Grissom’s mission. The recovery of the Theta-relay was just the beginning of his mission, and non-negotiable to the UNSC. If he failed to recover the relay, the fallback plan of the UNSC was to fortify the Shanxi-Theta relay with enough orbital MACs and tac mines that any alien crossing through wouldn’t survive a millisecond in UNSC controlled space.

“Understood, Fleet Admiral. I’ll keep the fleet safe.”

“Make sure you do son. We’ve got enough dead war heroes already.”

Grissom nodded in response. Almost 30 billion civilian and military personnel had died in the Human-Covenant war. The loss of the expeditionary flotilla had added another 2 thousand to the number of humans killed by aliens.

“To further complicate your mission, I have new orders for you.”

Grissom straightened his back. New orders not included in the original briefing? Not good. Sudden changes never were.

“We have new intel on our new ‘friends’ on the other side of the Mass Relay, courtesy of the Winter-class Prowler Deucalion that was shadowing the expeditionary flotilla in charge of Operation Roadblock.”

“A Winter-class Prowler? I wasn’t informed that there was one attached to the expedition.”

“You weren’t, and neither was I. It seems Fleet-Command wasn’t the first to go through the Mass Relay.” Lord Hood’s already wrinkled brow grew even more crevassed with a frown. “ONI sent the Deucalion to recon the space beyond the relay soon after the first scout probes returned through the relay. It’s been going back and forth through the Mass Relay for the past year and a half, surveying the area, deploying communication buoys and survey probes before being assigned to shadow the expedition.”

Grissom frowned. The fact that the Deucalion had done nothing but watch as the expeditionary flotilla was destroyed left a bad taste in his mouth, but he knew why it had done so. An ONI ships assigned to shadow UNSC ships only had two missions. One, prevent critical technology from falling into enemy hands. Two, retrieve information on any forces that destroyed the ships it shadowed. The only ship with critical technology in the expedition was the Kefitzat-Haderech, and she was destroyed in the first salvo; torn apart by both enemy munitions as well as the collapsing slip-space portal. The 2 Charon-light frigates, the Giovanni, and Hyugens, were aging ships designed before even the Human-Covenant war and were hardly the cutting edge of UNSC technology. The 3 civilian ships were simple freighters that lacked Shaw-Fujikawa drives, and only carried junior civilian researchers. The UNSC wasn’t going to risk trapping its best and brightest 10,000 lys away.

“After the ships that destroyed the expedition left, the Deucalion continued to monitor the area until the Mass Relay re-activated itself. During that time, a new alien ship was observed investigating the wreckage of our ships.”

An image of a ship popped up on the holographic display. It was an oblong thing, with what looked like cargo containers on either side.

“They look like a scavenger team.” Grissom commented.

“The captain of the Deucalion came to the same conclusion.” Lord Hood nodded. “With no other alien ships detected and the idea of UNSC military technology, no matter how insignificant, finding its way into alien hands being unacceptable, the Deucalion engaged the enemy vessel.”

A video file began to play. The alien ship slowly entered the remains of the Giovanni. Hull fragments and chunks of armor bounced off an invisible barrier around the ship.

Suddenly, bright flashes erupted all across the ship. The camera shook, as the Deucalion’s autocannons fired round after round at the vessel. None of the bullets penetrated the ship’s shields.

Orange flashes came back from the alien ship, impacting on the Deucalion’s shields, causing webs of lightening to flash over them.

The auto cannons stopped firing, and then two beams of light lanced out towards the alien ship, melting right through its hull. Explosions quickly followed, breaking the ship into pieces, merging with the wreckage of the Giovanni.

“As you can see,” Lord Hood said as he closed the video file, “the shields of the alien ships didn’t protect them from the pulse-lasers of the Deucalion. ONI believes this flaw is universal for all of the alien’s ships and has ‘recommended’ that Fleet-Command restrict its space assets to pulse-lasers and energy projectors alone.”

Grissom remained stunned for a moment, then his frown deepened.

“Are you saying that we won’t be able to use our MACs during this mission, Lord Hood.”

“I’m ordering you not to, Rear-Admiral.”

Silence filled the room, the only sound being the grinding of teeth in Grissom’s jaw. The MAC was the most prevalent, and powerful weapon possessed by UNSC ships. The thought of fighting a war with an unknown enemy without it was both frustrating and frightening.

“Relax Grissom.” Lord Hood sighed. “I’m not sending you out there with only sticks and stone. I’ve requisitioned almost every single Anlace-class frigate we have. They’ll meet you at Shanxi so your captains can switch ships there. The Dawn-breaker will also return to Mars for a weapon’s refit. “I’m also putting a Vindication class light-battleship, the East Anglia, under your command.”

A hologram of a ship appeared on the view screen. It looked like someone had sawed off the barrel of a Super MAC and attached some engines to the back. A 1580m long gun-metal grey block with a sloped prow that angled upwards. 8 long rods jutted out of its face like radio antennae. These were the usual features of a Vindication class light-battleship, but in addition to this it had 8 dome-like structures on it; one near each corner.

“As you may know, the Vindication-class light battleship has been the third wheel of the UNSC’s fleet for a long time. Too slow to coordinate with our frigates and cruisers, yet not heavily armored or armed enough to take Covenant ships head on; not to mention being unacceptably expensive to replace.” Lord Hood sighed. “They’re effectively mobile OWPs (Orbital Weapon Platform), but without the Super MACs, which makes them even less appealing to use. Most have been repurposed as mobile orbital defense platforms for colonies in high-risk areas, but with too few resources to build OWPs. The East Anglia, however, has been used as a experimental vessel for our engineers on Mars. As she’s still too slow to keep up with most of our other vessels, she was used to develop an alternative for space based defense other than the OWPs or space stations.” Pointing to the ship, he continued. “On top of her MACs, she has energy shields, pulse laser turrets, and 8 energy projectors; four ventral and four dorsal. These provide her with a 360 degree angle of fire. It won’t matter if the enemy comes from the top, bottom, bow, stern, port, or starboard; there will always be 4 energy projectors with firing solutions on them.”

“I assume the Dawn-breaker will receive the same upgrades?”

“She will, and more.” Lord Hood nodded. “In addition to receiving the same upgrades as the East Anglia, we’ll be supplying you with several new missile warheads, and the schematics necessary to produce more from your ship-board factories.”

Grissom nodded to himself. The replacement ships and upgrades to his own ship would help. Also, if the alien ships were as vulnerable to directed energy weapons as ONI said they were, it could give him enough of an advantage that he could accomplish the mission without using the MAC. However...

“I have two concerns Lord Hood.”

“Speak.”

“Firstly, I am worried by the power consumption of these upgrades. The Dawn-breaker already uses anywhere between 60~70% of her reactor’s output during travel, with consumption spiking to 80~90% during combat and slip-space travel. I worry that the additional upgrades may consume too much power to be useful. Secondly, although I have many frigate captains under my command, the cruiser and heavy cruiser captains will have to re-learn how to maneuver their ships.”

“Our engineers will deal with the power issue, so don’t worry too much about that. You won’t be able to shoot the MAC, take evasive maneuvers, power the shields, and use the energy projectors all at once, but you should be able to do two of those at the same time. Regarding the issue with your captains, I’ll send over some of the notes made by Admiral Lasky regarding the usage of the Anlace and energy projectors in general. Go over it with your command-crew and review it with the other captains. Captain Alec Ryder of the East Anglia should also help your captains get used to their new weapons.”

“Understood, Sir. I’ll plot a course for Mars, while the rest of my fleet will head to Shanxi.”

“Good. Fleet-Command, out.”

The communication ended, and the hologram disappeared. Grissom notified his crew, and the captains under him of the changes; forwarding Admiral Lasky’s notes to them at the same time. It would be many months before they were ready. Might as well use the time to read-up on their new weapons and the advantages and disadvantages they would bring.

**\- “A Review of post Human-Covenant War Naval Tactics” By Thomas Lasky**

Excerpt from Chapter 7: “The effect of directed energy weaponry on UNSC naval tactics.”

The inclusion of the energy projector in the UNSC’s arsenal brings both a new weapon onto the field of battle and new tactics. Until now, conventional UNSC naval tactics have always been constrained by the difficulty of coordinating multiple ships when engaging the enemy with projectile weapons, with the biggest problem being the MAC. As described in Newton’s third law, things in motion stay in motion; unless acted on by an external force. This means that any projectile that is fired from the MAC will continue in a straight line indefinitely. Additionally, although primarily used to strip the shields of Covenant ships, should a MAC round penetrate a Covenant ship, it will become even more dangerous as both high speed shrapnel and the tungsten shot will be sent into space at unpredictable vectors, endangering any friendly vessels behind the target.

This has meant that UNSC ships can only engage enemies from two directions on the same plane that are either perpendicular to, or at obtuse angles to each other; in order to prevent friendly fire. This usually takes the form of a forward front that will force the enemy to stay in position, and a flanking front that can hit the enemy from their port, starboard, ventral, or dorsal flanks. Any more fronts, and the risk of friendly fire from missed shots, shots that penetrate their target, and shrapnel from enemy ships outweigh the benefits of attacking from multiple directions.

The energy projector, combined with energy shielding, has solved this problem through the use of variable charge times. Energy projectors, unlike the MAC, can modify their TTK(time to kill) by firing a weak ‘tracer’ beam before increasing output to the maximum 7 megatons of TNT per second. This ‘tracer’ beam acts as a warning for any ships in the line of fire; allowing them to take evasive action, or raise their energy shields, protecting them from the shot. Although this does warn the enemy of the beam’s intended target, as the beam travels at the speed of light, there is very little a targeted ship can do in open space besides raise their shields as the fire control officer can easily re-target enemy ships that attempt evasive maneuvers. This tactic, combined with the increased accuracy of slip-space drives, has allowed the Infinity, and her compliment of 10 Anlace-class frigates to coordinate ‘kill boxes’, or formations with 3 or more fronts that enclose enemy fleets. These kill boxes have been highly effective against Kig-Yar pirates, and insurrectionist flotillas, as the two forces prefer guerilla tactics; meaning they prefer to hit and run rather than engage in direct combat. By enclosing their ships with Anlace frigates, their ability to run is greatly reduced, allowing them to be destroyed in a single engagement, removing the need to hunt down and destroy them over a long period of time.

There are, however, two problems with energy projectors. The first problem is one unique to UNSC energy projectors. Although capable of firing with the same output as Covenant energy projectors, our ship-board reactors can only sustain the beam for a maximum of 20s, while some Covenant ships can sustain beams for hours at a time. The second problem is one found in all energy projectors. Unlike the MAC, the energy projector must melt or burn through whatever is between it and its target in order to damage it. Where a MAC would simply penetrate the object or turn it into a storm of highspeed projectiles, an energy projector must spend extra time to melt through any space debris or asteroids that may be between it and its target. Kig-Yar pirates have used this weakness to escape several times; either by sacrificing escort craft to allow their flagships to escape or using asteroids as cover.1.

  1. This is one of the reasons all Anlace-frigates have a secondary dorsal MAC; to prevent enemy ships from avoiding fire by hiding behind small debris.



Another advantage the energy projector has over our MACs is the lack of an ‘effective range’. As stated earlier, once fired, the MAC round will continue along its vector until it impacts something. However, although this gives the MAC an infinite range, it does not mean that they can hit a target an infinite distance away.

The standard frigate-based Mark II 56A2D4 MAC fires a 600ton ferric-tungsten slug at 30km/s; meaning it will take 10 minutes for the slug to impact a target 18000km away. However, the light and heat that comes from firing the MAC will reach the enemy sensors in 6 microsecond, giving enemy ships a little over 9 minutes to evade the shot. This time lag between the detection of the shot being fired to the actual impact of the shot is what determines the effective range of all projectile weapons in space combat. The UNSC has previously rectified this issue by using the following 4 tactics.

One, fire MACs in barrages, like the broadside cannon batteries of ancient sail-ships used during the 17th to 19th century. By saturating the area around the target with MAC slugs, the target is prevented from evading all of them.

Two, get close enough to the target, so that they are well within the ‘effective range’ of the weapon.

Three, use guided munitions, such as missiles or torpedoes, so that evasive maneuvers of the target can be compensated for.

Four, prevent targets from detecting the signature of the shot, so the target is unaware they have been fired upon and does not take evasive maneuvers.

As the energy projector’s beam hits the target at the speed of light, there is no warning between the firing of the weapon to the impact of the target, effectively giving the energy projector an infinite effective range; as by the time the target realizes they have been fired upon, the beam has already hit their ship. In practice, however, heat emissions from the buildup of energy during the charging of the energy projector can give 5~10 minutes of advance warning. On the other hand, the only thing the target can determine is that the weapon will be fired soon, but they will have no idea what it will be fired at. This presents new opportunities for wide-spaced combat maneuvers; combat maneuvers with few ships spread across a wide field of space. As there is no longer the problem of effective range our fleets no longer need to group up to saturate a target with fire knowing the majority of shot will miss. There is no need to close with the enemy, so the effective range of our weapon systems needs to be satisfied. This frees these ships to maneuver around the enemy, forcing them to split their fire and attention in multiple directions. This both multiplies the damage we do to them, while dividing the damage they do to us.

In short, the energy projector provides ships with not only greatly increased firepower, but a huge increase in their mobility and maneuvers they may take. The Admirals and Captains of the post Human-Covenant war will be able to organize their ships in ways their predecessors could only dream of.

However, a word of caution must be made regarding the Super MACs on OWPs and Super-Carriers. These weapons accelerate 3000ton ferric-tungsten slugs to 0.04c(4% the speed of light). Although the energy projector beam is faster than the slug of a Super MAC, the Super MAC impacts its target with over 51 Gigatons of TNT worth of kinetic energy. The strongest Covenant energy projectors that have been recorded during glassing operations have a maximum output of 7.7 megatons of TNT per second. This means a Covenant energy projector must fire continuously on a target for over a minute to achieve the same output as a UNSC Super MAC. Meanwhile an OWP Super MAC assisted with planet side reactors and orbital power stations may fire 13 shots in the same time frame. Even a Punic-class Super Carrier can manage 2~3 shots per minute if both of its Super MACs are engaged. Each Super MAC shot is enough to destroy or cripple any vessel, UNSC or Covenant, in one or two shots. Even Covenant destroyers, 1350m long warships with energy shielding, can be turned inside out as the sheer kinetic force imparted on the vessels hull causes a hypervelocity impact; effectively liquifying the hull as the energy of the shot is so high it makes the metallic bonding between the very atoms of the ship negligible.

Thus, full conversion to energy projectors for all UNSC ships is inadvisable, as MAC technology has proven superior to directed energy weapons; in terms of instantaneous destructive power both during and after the Human-Covenant war.

…


	3. Mission Briefing

**-UNSC ANLACE-CLASS FRIGATE BRINGER OF PROGRESS JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE**

“Hey, Steven! Over here!” Steven Hackett looked across the frigate’s mess hall, where an African American man of middling size was waving at him from one of the tables. Grabbing his mess tray, he walked up to the meal terminals embedded into the wall and pressed the buttons for his lunch and drink. “No need to yell at me from across the room, Josh.” He called out over his shoulder while the machine hummed, warming up the chicken steak and greens he’d ordered. Joshua Gunn stopped waving and turned back to the other person at the table, Malin Dahl; the Fire Control Officer of the UNSC Bringer of Progress. Joshua was the Helmsman of the ship, and Steven was the Navigator. Together, they served under Commander Ikran Khoury.

“Finally,” Joshua said with feigned exasperation as Hackett sat down at their table. “we were about to just finish up and leave without you.”

“I said I’d be a while.”

“What? You see something interesting, ‘Stargazer’?” Mahlin snickered.

Hackett snorted. Stargazer. The nickname he’d received soon after he’d been assigned, to the UNSC Cajamarca; the Paris-class frigate all three had served on before their transfer to the Bringer of Progress. It came from the long hours he spent studying the various star charts before missions; and maybe the one time they’d found him asleep at the viewing deck of the bridge. He’d been looking out the window, trying to relax the eyestrain he was suffering from staring at the charts, and nodded off.

“I was reviewing the data from the Deucalion’s sensor net beyond the Mass Relay.” He retorted, taking a bite out of the chicken steak. “They’ve managed to set up a sensor network 30 light years around the Shanxi-Theta Relay. That means there are over 100 different stars, and an equal number of systems in the region. As the navigator, I’d think you’d appreciate the work I’m putting in ahead of time.”

“You’ve got homework too!” Malin groaned. “I’ve got to memorize all the different settings of the energy projector; focusing depths, charge times, power consumption levels, shield oscillation synchronization. Gah!” She slumped to the side dramatically, before sending a dirty look at the third member at the table.

“What? You think I don’t have anything to do right now? I’ve been reading manuals and spending time in the training simulator all day.”

“At least you got to actually pilot the ship.” Malin huffed. “I haven’t even touched the buttons on my console yet. Only training simulations.”

“Hey I only got to pilot her properly once, and that was for training maneuvers with the rest of the battlegroup, not a joy ride.”

Hackett sighed as the two continued their bickering. It had been almost 9 months since they had received their mission. During that time, they had been preparing; learning about the ships they would be manning, reviewing the combat logs from Operation Roadblock, and practicing the maneuvers with the rest of the fleet.

“So, have you gotten used to her yet?” Malin asked Joshua.

“Almost. The Anlace is faster, and more agile than any of the other frigates in the UNSC fleet… mostly because she’s the runt of the family.”

“She doesn’t lack in fire power, at least.”

“Yeah, but she’s got virtually no point defense. If any starfighters get in close, we’ve got no way to get them off us.”

“That’s what the broadswords in the hangar are for. Besides, as long as they come in from the front, I’m pretty sure I can gun them down with the energy projector.”

“You’re going to shootdown starfighters with the energy projector?” Hackett interrupted.

“Yeah” Malin smirked. “This isn’t a MAC, or a missile. It’s for more accurate. Theoretically, I could cut the head off an Elite staring through a ship window at 100Mms (100,000kms) away. A starfighter should be no problem.”

“I hope you’re right,” Joshua sighed “because if you don’t gun them down, we’re pretty much sitting ducks. The Anlace may be a lot more agile than any other UNSC ship, but her size means that she’s only got space for the energy projector and MAC on the back. No turret, no missile pods, nothing. If they get close, the only thing besides our fly boys keeping us alive are the energy shields.” He sighed again. “Why couldn’t they have just slapped the energy projector on something bigger, like an Autumn-class? Now, that’s a ship I’d like to pilot.”

“It’s too expensive.” Hackett said between bites. “If a cruiser goes down, she takes with her anywhere between 900 to 800 crewmen as well as billions of credits worth of equipment, fuel, and ammunition; adding an energy projector would just make the price tag higher when she goes down.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know the theory. It’s the same one the Allies used during WWII, right?”

Hackett nodded. During WWII, the Axis had the technological advantage in tank warfare. The German Panther had the strongest gun, the heaviest armor, and the fastest engines. Allied tanks didn’t match up one to one. However, they didn’t try to.

The American Sherman tank was nicknamed, ‘Ronson’ after the then popular Ronson cigarette lighter's ad slogan "lights first every time"; a reference to the fact that Sherman tanks often burst into flames after taking a single hit. However, it was the easily replaced Sherman that won in the end.

“Don’t forget, part of the reason frigates weren’t in style before the Human-Covenant war was the MAC.” Chirped Malin.

Joshua raised an eyebrow. “What’s the MAC got to do with anything?”

“MACs are all based on coil gun technology, so the longer the slug stays in the MAC barrel the longer it can be accelerated; making it hit harder. The only way we could do that was by making the barrel longer; hence the need for longer and bigger ships. The energy projector doesn’t have that limitation. You just need a powerful enough reactor, a reflective enclosure that can redirect photons in the desired direction, and a gain medium.”

Joshua gave her a blank stare, while Hackett continued with his meal.

“Ugh.” Malin sighed. “That means we don’t have to make our ships big to give them more firepower.”

“Hey, Steven. I think Malin’s brain’s been fried from all that manual reading.”

“If she forgot the KISS(Keep It Simple Stupid) rule, then you’re probably right.”

“You guys are the stupid ones I’ve got to make things simple for.” Malin pouted.

“Touché” Joshua said, raising his hands in surrender.

The three of them finished eating and picked up their trays. As they walked to the collection slot, Joshua leaned over Hackett’s shoulder.

“So, any info on our new friends?”

“Nothing important from the Deucalion sensor net. We get the odd gravitational reading, but it could be another one of those Mass Relays.”

“I wonder who built them.”

“The Mass Relays? No idea. Not the Forerunner according to ONI.”

“Yeah, but who else could come up with technology like that.”

“Who knows.” Hackett shrugged. “We’re going through it in a couple of months, why don’t you ask the locals when you get there.”

“If only I…”

Suddenly, the ship speaker’s blared to life.

“This is Commander Khoury to all personnel, report to your action stations and await orders from work division leaders. I repeat, all personnel, report to your action stations and await orders from work division leaders. Bridge staff, report to the bridge for mission briefing. I repeat, bridge staff, report to the bridge for mission briefing.”

The three of them shared a look, before slamming their trays into the collection slots.

They arrived at the bridge a few minutes later. Commander Ikran Khoury, a tan-skinned man of Arabic descent, stood in front of the holographic projection table in the middle with the rest of the bridge staff around him.

“Commander Khoury.” The three called in unison as they saluted.

“At ease.” Commander Khoury said as he returned their salute. “I assume you all have an idea why you’ve been called here so soon.”

“Is it them commander?” One of the officers asked.

“Yes, it is about the new aliens that I’ve called you here.” The commander nodded. “At 1224 hours, the Deucalion reported an enemy fleet had appeared near the Theta Relay.” The holographic table flickered, then showed the Theta relay, and a storm of red dots before it. “The Deucalion reports that the enemy fleet is composed of 225 ships. 1 heavy cruiser class ship 1100m long, with 24 frigate class ships about 500m long, and almost 200 smaller escorts ranging from 300~200m.”

“Over 200...”

“We’ve only got about 70 ships here…”

“… more than 3 to 1…”

Murmurs travelled through the bridge staff as they processed the information. Commander Khoury cleared his throat, quickly silencing the bridge.

“The enemy fleet is predicted to cross through the Relay in another hour, and predicted to move towards Shanxi, the closest planet to the Mass Relay. We expect the enemy to attack any ships they come to into contact with, but what happens after that is anybody’s guess. We, the 49th fleet, will move out and engage them here, 100Mms away from the Mass Relay as three battle groups X1 with 50 ships, Y1 with 10 ships, and Y2 also with 10 ships at 1600 hours.

The fleet’s mission is to prevent enemy forces from reaching Shanxi. The Bringer of Progress will be in Battlegroup X1; we will be the vanguard, the first in battle to engage. Our mission is to hold back the enemy fleet and force them to engage us so battlegroups Y1 and Y2 can attack the enemy flanks. Y1 will emerge from slip-space and attack the enemy starboard flank after we have engaged the enemy. Y2 will also come out of slip-space and engage their port flank after the enemy fleet reorganizes to counter Y1’s flanking maneuver.”

Hackett watched the holographic table as the green triangles symbolizing friendly ships surrounded the alien fleet. A 3-sided combat maneuver, with a feint included as well. The alien ships would be in for a rude awakening when they realized they were being hit from both sides at once. Additionally, the combat zone would be in open space. No asteroids, planets, or space stations to block their shots. A marine would have referred to it as a Kill Zone. The only problem was that they would be out in the open as well.

“Once the enemy has engaged us, we are to move forward in line formation. Half the battlegroup will move above the plane of engagement, while the other half will move below it to free up our vertical firing solutions and divide their fire in two directions. Once we get within 50Mm range, we will engage the enemy ships. Prioritize the larger frigate class vessels. After we pick off the frigates and scatter their escorts, concentrate fire on the heavy cruiser. Take out her weapons and engines, then leave her drifting. Spartan boarding teams will take control of the vessel at a later date, and hand it over to ONI and Fleet Command so we can gather some actual intel on these aliens. Any questions?”

Malin raised her hand. “What weapons will be allowed to use, commander.”

“The energy projector and our broadswords; that’s all until permission is granted from Fleet Command.”

Some of the bridge staff snorted at this, and Khoury sighed.

“I know a lot of you don’t think highly of ONI, but I will stress the necessity of keeping the MAC a secret. Right now, the enemy has no idea of what weapons we use. The longer they assume our main ship-based weapons are energy projectors, the longer they’ll spend trying to counter it, and not the MAC. The cheapest and easiest way to do that without energy shielding is ablative armor. That means insulative or reflective material like ceramic, silicon, and certain metal alloys. These are all soft or brittle materials; things a MAC round can easily punch through. That means that if the enemy ever attacks Earth or any of her colonies, our standing forces will stand a better chance against them. Do you understand?”

“Aye aye, sir.” Malin nodded.

“Good. Now, for anyone else who’s still unconvinced, let me remind you that we defend humanity in more ways than one. Whether it’s by firing a gun or keeping intel from the enemy. Now, anyone else have a question.”

Hackett raised his hand. “What scenarios do we have for enemy retreat and reinforcements, commander.”

“The Deucalion will notify us of any enemy reinforcements that come from the Mass Relay. In the event they overwhelm us, we retreat to Shanxi, and provide cover for the OWPs while we wait for reinforcements. As for retreating enemy vessels, we are to disable or destroy any vessels retreating to the Mass Relay. The enemy’s intel dies with them, on this side of the Mass Relay.”

“Aye aye, sir.” Hackett nodded.

“Anyone else? No? Good. Get to your stations. We leave the Anchor in 10 minutes.”

The officers dispersed, heading back to their stations. The enemy was here, and they would not find the UNSC wanting.

**-PFS DREADNOUGHT PERPETUAL JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE**

“Senior Ship master Vitanius.” An orange holographic view screen popped up on Auvus Vitanius’s terminal.

“What is it, Ship Master Caltumus?”

“The fleet has arrived at the Mass Relay, but there’s been some disturbance at the remains of the alien ships.”

“What disturbance Ship Master?”

“We’re detecting radiation, and trace remains of Element Zero among the wreckage. I believe a ship from our side of the Mass Relay was destroyed in the wreckage.”

Sensor readings popped up, as well as the image of the wrecked ships. The debris was far more spread out than when last recorded, and there was additional scorching and melting across it, as if a nuclear bomb had gone off inside it. The chromatographic scanning read out appeared next to the image. Radioactive isotopes, and Element Zero were highlighted as elements previously not present from the last record.

“Most likely salvagers or pirates.” Vitanius muttered. “They must have gotten caught in the explosion of the alien ship’s reactor. We know they use fusion reactors in their ships. One of them must have been damaged, and then exploded when they tried to take it apart.”

“Of course, sir, but there is a chance that the ship was destroyed by these aliens. The patrol flotilla didn’t leave anyone to monitor the Mass Relay. Additional ships may have come through. I am requesting permission to leave a cruiser and her frigate flotilla to act as a rearguard on this side of the Mass Relay.”

“Permission denied. Less ships on the other side, means less supplies for our ground troops. These aliens are levo-protein based. We won’t be able to requisition supplies from their worlds. I want every ship with me to set up forwards bases and supply lines as quickly as possible. Besides, the enemy ships don’t even have kinetic barriers. What threat does a bunch of primitive aliens pose against us?”

“None sir.”

“Then, there is no need for a rearguard.”

“Understood sir.”

“Good, now get your fleet in position”

The orange view screen closed, and Vitanius reclined back in his seat overlooking the bridge. Before him, the entire fleet was shown on a holographic map. Every ship, every starfighter, even the space debris from the ships were shown as blue and orange triangles or squares. Soon, it would show the red of enemy ships and installations.

Vitanius smiled to himself. As a career military man, he had no fear of combat. He’d destroyed pirate flotillas, mercenary bands, and even the odd ‘rogue’ Batarian fleet that so happened to intrude on Turian space. Primitive aliens with no idea of the Mass Effect posed no threat to him, or the Hierarchy’s fleet. Once the primitives learned their place, they could join the Hierarchy; just as the Volus had long ago.

“Comms Officer, get me a connection to our cruisers.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

An orange screen popped up, followed by video feeds of the cruiser Ship Masters.

“Order the frigate flotillas to move through the relay and take a staggered plane formation once you get there. Be prepared for enemy engagement the moment we go through.”

A series of ‘Aye aye, sirs’ came back from the Ship Masters, and the communication line closed. This would be a new chapter in the history of the Hierarchy, Vitanius thought to himself, as bolts of lightening arced out of the Mass Relay, engulfing ships, before shooting them out into the blackness of space through a corridor of light. Soon, his ship too was before the Mass Relay, engulfed in light, and shot through the stars.

In the blackness of space, left by the Turian fleet, a shimmer of light appeared before materializing into a small ship; a little less than 90m long. The UNSC Deucalion, a Winter-class Prowler equipped with active camouflage, and emission distortion grids. Even Covenant vessels would struggle to detect it. Shaped more like a starfighter than a space ship, it moved slowly through the void, across the Mass Relay, before releasing a cloud of small objects behind it. They were magnetic mines, the same mines it had used to cover up its destruction of the salvager inspecting the wreckage. A few on the reactor of the vessels, and the remains of the Shaw-Fujikawa drives ensured that nothing important remained there.

After depositing its mines in a loose cloud on both sides of the Mass Relay, the UNSC Deucalion glided over the bone white structure, before stopping just above the two prongs, like a crow on a tree branch. And with that, the hunters became the hunted. The conquerors would become the conquered. But, the biggest irony of all was that although the forces facing Vitanius possessed technology beyond his wildest dreams, it was his arrogance that truly defeated him.


	4. Opening Salvo

**-UNSC BROADSWORD PROGRESS 1 JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE 1530 hours**

“Bringer of Progress Broadswords, callsign Progress 1, Progress 2, this is Bringer of Progress Flight Control; Callsign Progress Actual, Radio check. Over.”

“Progress Actual, this is Progress 1. I hear you loud and clear. Over.”

“Progress Actual, this is Progress 2. I hear you loud and clear. Over.”

“Roger Progress 1 and Progress 2. Stand by for HUD display for synchronization with Progress Actual Fire Control and Energy Shields. Over.”

“Progress 1 Wilco.”

“Progress 2 Wilco.”

Naomi Auriol pressed a button on her control panel and leaned back in the cockpit as her helmet’s HUD updated itself with a small timer in the bottom left. A transparent widget displaying the Bringer of Progress’s shields popped up next to her weapon system’s status readings. She and her wingman, Jake Boyington, had completed the flight and weapons checks and were all green to go. All they were waiting for was the order to take-off.

“Hey, Progress 1.”

“What is it Jake?”

“There’s something that’s been bugging me this whole time.”

“What?”

“Why do Covie lasers glow in space?”

Naomi sighed, shaking her head.

“They went over that in applied quantum physics back at the Academy. You borrowed my notes to finish the coursework.”

“Well,” Jake shrugged. “let’s just say I impressed the flight instructors a lot more than the professors.”

Naomi sighed again.

“Okay, so you know what a laser is, right.”

“Yeah, basically just a concentrated beam of light, isn’t it?”

“Not really, it’s a certain frequency of light, meaning it can be focused even more than white light.”

“…”

“Okay, so you know white light is made up of a bunch of colors, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And that each of those colors is caused by a different wavelength of light, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Because white light has so many different wavelengths in it, when you focus them together, they interfere with each other. That causes them to either nullify or interfere with each other, meaning you lose more power the more you try to focus the light.”

“So, it’s like trying to pack a bunch of different sized boxes together.”

Naomi raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t actually that bad of an analogy.

“Sort of. In a laser, all the light is in the same wavelength, so they can be focused together without nullifying each other. If you want to use your box example, it’s like how a bunch of same sized boxes are easier to pack together than a bunch of different sized boxes.”

“So, how does that explain lasers glowing in space?”

“When you focus light like that, it generates an electromagnetic field around it. This forces virtual particles in the vacuum apart and causes them to act like real particles for a moment.”  
There was a moment of silence from the radio.

“Sorry, you lost me at virtual particles.”

“Right. Okay. Where to begin… Do you know what Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is?”

“Yeah, it’s that equation that either predicts the position an electron is in or the direction its going when in its in orbit around an atom.”

“Putting aside the fact that electrons don’t actually ‘orbit’ an atom, yeah. That’s the equation I’m talking about. Anyways, that same equation also doesn’t allow ‘nothing’ to exist. At every point in time, there is always either an uncertainty of position, or an uncertainty of momentum. These uncertainties can’t be zero. So, if ‘nothing’ can’t exist according to the laws of physics, then ‘something’ must be there. That’s where the virtual particle comes in. The uncertainty principle allows things to simply ‘appear’ out of nothing as long as they ‘disappear’ into nothing very quickly.”

“So, you’re saying there’s just matter popping into existence and disappearing every second?”

“Even more frequently than that, but it’s there. These virtual particles always exist in charged pairs. One positive, one negative. They have to exist in pairs so they can cancel each other out to stop existing. When a strong enough laser is fired, the electromagnetic field generated by the laser forces the pair of virtual particls apart, causing them to behave like real particle until they annihilate each other. These virtual particles are usually leptons, so they give off light like excited hydrogen, which is why Covie energy projectors shoot beams of reddish-purple light.”

A notification appeared on Naomi’s HUD, notifying the synchronization with the Bringer of Progress’s firing solution computer and energy shields was complete. The clock on her HUD showed 15:50 as the time. She pushed a button acknowledging the notification and sat back in her chair.

“Wow. So, we don’t actually see the light of the laser?” Jack quipped as he also acknowledged the notification.

“No, just the light from the virtual particles being split up by the laser. That also means there’s a theoretical limit to the range of laser weaponry, because some of the laser’s energy is going to be dispersed by the virtual particles it disturbs while going through a vacuum.”

“Progress 1, Progress 2, this is Progress Actual, sorry to cut into the science lesson Spartans, but we’re giving you the all green for take-off. Over.”

“Progress 1 Wilco.”

“Progress 2 Wilco.”

Naomi punched a button on her control panel, and the Broadswords VTOL system lifted the craft off the hangar floor. She angled the nose toward the hangar door, covered by a thin shield to hold the atmosphere in place.

“Progress 1, Progress 2. This is Progress Actual. You are green. I repeat you are green. Lift-off. Over.”

“Progress 1 Wilco.”

“Progress 2 Wilco.”

The control stick dipped forward in her hand, and the Broadsword accelerated forwards, pushing through the blue atmosphere shield, into the blackness of space.

“Alright, Progress 1, Progress 2.” Said the flight control officer. “You guys are the only close ranged defense we have, so it’s going to be tight. Worst case scenario, if the enemy sends waves of fighters and guided munitions at us, you’re going to have to move up and hold them off where the energy projector can gun them down. The ship’s firing solutions will appear on your HUD, so make sure you stay out of its way. If things get too hairy, fall back to the Bringer of Progress, and take cover under her shield. We’ll call in support from other frigates to clean them off us. Over.”

“Progress 1 Wilco.”

“Progress 2 Wilco.”

“Stay safe people, and make sure to cover each other’s ba- Progress 1, Progress 2. Enemy fire detected. Impact in 12 seconds. Avoid prow shields. I repeat. Enemy fire detected avoid the prow shields.”

Naomi jerked her control stick, swerving away from the front of the frigate. A moment later, a small explosion lit up against the shields, briefly causing them to shimmer. The display of the Bringer of Progress’s shields showed a slight dip, before a quick climb to full strength. A red cylinder, almost as wide as the frigate itself appeared on her HUD, shooting out from the prow of the frigate off into the blackness of space.

“Progress 1, Progress 2.” The Flight Control officer radioed in. “Bringer of Progress’s energy projector is charging. Stay clear and keep your distance from the prow. Enemy weapon appears to be a projectile weapon of some kind, and we’re detecting iron dust around the point of impact. Maintain distance of 100 to 200m to either the starboard, or portside, near the stern. Over.”

“Progress 1 Wilco.”

“Progress 2 Wilco.”

Naomi looked down at the timer in the bottom left of her HUD. 4 minutes 29 seconds until the UNSC returned the favor to the aliens.

**-PFS DREADNOUGHT PERPETUAL JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE 1540 hours**

“Senior Ship Master Vitanius, sensors are picking up heat signatures, 40 in total about 60Mm away.”

Vitanius stood at the bridge, hands behind his back, overlooking the bridge. The passage through the relay and into foreign space had been uneventful so far. The 24 cruisers represented by blue squares on the holographic battle-map before him, and their frigate flotillas shown as similarly colored triangles were reporting green across the board. The Perpetual herself was placed in the middle of the fleet as a large blue diamond.

Until now, only his ships and the Mass Relay were present on the battle-map. Now, 40 red squares approached them from the front. He smirked. Only 40 ships, all cruiser class. Either this was the best the aliens could manage, or they were arrogant enough to believe they could win being outnumbered more than 5:1.

“Get me a visual.” He ordered. “And notify the fleet. Have all frigate flotillas take up standard defensive positions around their supporting cruisers.”

“Aye aye, Sir.” One of the Comms officer nodded. “Hailing all ships of the 30th fleet, all ships of the 30th fleet, this is the PFS Dreadnought Perpetual. General Quarters. General Quarters. Take up defensive positions. Be advised, 40 cruiser-class contacts 60Mm of the prow, stand by for coordinates. Over.”

The Turian ships on the holographic battle-map turned green, signaling that an order had been sent and was awaiting confirmation. The ships one by one returned to their blue color, pinging as they did so, confirming the order.

Triangles began to encircle the squares, and the diamond; frigates taking their positions around the cruisers and the Perpetual, forming a defensive screen against missiles, torpedoes, and starfighters.

The 8 cruiser squadrons, compromised of 3 cruisers with 8 frigates assisting each cruiser, were arranged in 2 lines and a triangle. 3 squadrons made up the forward position, the vanguard of the fleet and were arranged in a straight line, ships side by side. 3 squadrons took up the middle of the fleet, 1 above and 2 below the plane the forward squadrons occupied; so they could provide supporting fire without risking hitting their own. The final pair of squadrons kept up the rear, Mass Effect fields at maximum reducing their mass, allowing them to quickly turn around should they be attacked from the rear, or to accelerate forwards to replace a damaged squadron.

“Prep forward Mass Accelerators and activate kinetic barriers.”

“Aye aye, Sir.” The Fire Control Officer acknowledged. “ETI(Estimated time to Impact) is 16 seconds.”

“Senior Ship Master,” One of the bridge staff, piped up. “visual of alien vessels confirmed.”

“Show it to me.”

“Aye aye, Sir.”

The battle-map minimized itself to a corner of the table, and a holographic image of a ship appeared. Cylindrical, gun-metal grey, and about 370m long; its only visible armaments appeared to be the cannon on its back, and what looked like a hangar bay on the ventral side of the ship. Vitanius snorted. No missile silos, torpedo tubes, and only a single gun. Not a threat, possibly even less so than the ships the patrol fleet had destroyed. As he watched, two smaller ships left the hangar bay at the bottom.

“Senior Ship Master, alien ships are deploying fighters. 2 fighters per ship.” Said one of the bridge staff.

Vitanius’s eyes narrowed. So, the aliens had detected them as well. “Fire a warning shot.” He ordered. “Show them what they’re dealing with.”

“Aye aye, sir.” The Fire Control Officer replied. “Firing at the nearest ship, 20m portside of their prow.”

The Comms officer next to her, opened a channel to the fleet. “All ships of the 30th fleet, all ships of the 30th fleet, this is the PFS Dreadnought Perpetual. Be advised. Firing warning shot on Target 03. Do not engage the enemy. I repeat, firing warning shot on target 03. Do not engage the enemy. Over.”

Again, the battle-map pinged repeatedly as the ships sent back and affirmative.

“Calibrating prow gun 01.” The Fire Control Officer called out. “Shot weight 20kg, velocity 0.013c. Setting firing timers.”

A timer appeared and Vitanius watched as the seconds counted down.

30 seconds

20 seconds

10 seconds

5

4

3

2

1

The magnetic coils of one of the Perpetuals 8 main prow guns emitted a deep hum before firing out a 20kg iron slug with a dull thud. An orange spark disappeared off into the blackness of space. Vitanius minimized the image of the ship, returning to the holographic map of the entire fleet in order to see how the alien fleet would react to their shot. Would they be humbled; awed by the sheer power of their weapons, or would they fire back? He watched the battle-map intently, the warning shot highlighted as a small orange dot flying from a blue diamond; its projected course shown as a dotted line passing the alien ship along its portside. Suddenly, just as the dot was about to pass by the alien ship, it vanished.

“Impact detected!” The Fire Control Officer called out.

Impact? Vitanius thought to himself. Had the aliens flown into the shot? “What happened?” He asked.

“Bringing up a recording of the shot Sir.”

The battle-map minimized itself again to display the alien ship. At first there was nothing but the alien cruiser and its fighters. Then, the fighters quickly moved away from the prow of the ship. Moments later, the shot that was meant to barely miss the ship impacted against an invisible barrier about 20ms away from its hull; sending a shimmering shockwave that traced the outline of an invisible bubble around the ship.

Vitanius scowled and cursed internally. These aliens had developed kinetic barriers! The shielding technology based on the Mass Effect was usually the 2nd or 3rd technological breakthrough that followed immediately after the discovery of the Mass Effect; either after the discovery of FTL travel, or Mass Accelerator technology. Speed had been a priority for the Turians for this reason, and they had apparently not been fast enough.

“It appears the enemy ships are equipped with kinetic barriers, Sir.”

“I can see that, lieutenant.” Vitanius growled. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Yes Sir. Their barriers seem to enclose the entire ship, and I’m detecting a large increase in temperature of the prow of the alien ships.”

A slow smile crawled itself across Vitanius’s face.

“Most likely a heat built up from the kinetic barriers.” He laughed. “Not only are their barriers overheating from one shot, but they apparently don’t know how to use barriers at all.”

Kinetic barriers function by creating high-mass field around an object using the Mass Effect. This high-mass field acts as a sort of artificial ‘gravity well’ trapping objects with mass with their own inertia when they passed through them, effectively ‘shielding’ anything behind the field. However, they worked both ways. “By creating such massive barriers, they’ve trapped themselves inside their own barriers.” Vitanius smirked.

Kinetic barriers of the council races were usually generated by small emitters that lined whatever they were supposed to protect; whether it was the hull of a ship or the armor of a soldier. This allowed the field to be generated either centimeters, or millimeters away from whatever they protected; allowing weapons to remain uncovered by the field. ‘Arrogant primitives’ Vitanius thought to himself again. These aliens must have felt quite pleased with themselves for creating such large barriers, but all they had done was trap themselves behind their own defenses.

“Tell the forward squadrons to begin firing.” The Senior Ship Master ordered. “We’ve given them their warning. Break down their barriers.”

“Aye aye, Sir.” A Comms Officer nodded. “Forward Cruiser Squadrons Angeion, Barus, and Gigas. Cruiser Squadrons Angeion, Barus, and Gigas. This is the PFS Dreadnought Perpetual. Mass Accelerator are free. I repeat Mass Accelerator are free. Remain in formation and engage the enemy. Over.”

9 pings came from the cruisers, signaling their affirmative. Then, a hail of Mass Accelerator fire flew out from the forward ships. 9 cruisers, the Adsumat, Palvist, Seritos, Cretatumat, Differost, Exigam, Famulantus, Gemastritus, and Ploratum opened fire, sending wave upon wave of orange shots into black space, showering the alien ships like raindrops in a storm.

“Shots are impacting on the enemy barriers, Sir.” The sensor operator called out. “The heat signature from the enemy ship are increasing. I’m detecting temperatures of almost 700K and rising.”

“Keep firing.” Vitanius ordered. “If they want to hide behind their shields until they burn to death, let them.”

“Aye aye, Sir.”

For a few minutes, only the beeping of terminals were the only noises on the bridge.

Vitanius scowled at the battle-map. The barriers on the aliens’ barriers had still not given out. Even Asari barriers would have been broken under so much firepower. Meanwhile, the heat signatures from the alien ships had risen to over 1200K, hot enough to melt iron, yet the ships’ hull weren’t even glowing.

“Ship Master.” One of the sensor operators looked back at him; slightly nervous. “The heat signatures… I’m not sure they’re from the enemy barriers.”

“Explain yourself.” Barked Vitanius.

“The heat increase… it’s increasing over time, and the rate of increase hasn’t changed since the beginning.”

“Of course, it’s increasing over time.” Vitanius growled. “We’ve been firing at them for the past couple of minutes.”

“That’s what I mean, Sir.” The operator’s fringe twitched nervously. “There’s been no difference in the rate of increase since the first shot. Kinetic barriers, and the Mass Effect fields that generate them should generate heat and static electricity proportionally to the force they nullify, but the alien ships have been getting hotter at the same rate, even when there are no shots impacting their barriers. This heating profile… it’s less like a kinetic barrier generator and more like a GARDIAN defense laser.”

Vitanius’s raised an eye plate. “Are you suggesting these aliens are trying to shoot us with laser weapons?”

“I… I don’t know Sir.” The sensor officer stammered. “I’m just not sure if these heat signatures are from kinetic barrier generators.”

The Senior Ship Master went quiet, stroking his chin, pondering the information. The aliens were more developed than he thought, and laser weapons did not need Mass Effect based technology to be designed. It also allowed ships to fire through kinetic barriers. Was that the reason the enemy had such large barriers in the first place?

“Order the fleet to prepare to maintain their current distance with the enemy.” Vitanius ordered. “If the aliens do intend to use laser weapons, then we need to keep them at ra-”

Neon light, blinding white tinged with red and purple filled the view screens. Vitanius covered his eyes, partially blinded, then the battle-map beeped repeatedly as 10 blue triangles and a square instantly tuned into red Xs, and exclamation marks signaling distress signals appeared next 20 other ships. The bridge froze in momentary shock. Then, the Perpetual shuddered as something slammed into her and the ship’s collision alarms began to sound.

“Status report!” the Senior Ship Master roared, shaken out of his stupor.

“Multiple impacts on the portside!” One of the operators yelled back. “One of our frigates was destroyed and the debris field impacted us.”

“What about the fleet? Get me a sitrep now!”

“We’ve lost the cruiser Adsumat, and 2 of her escorting frigates!” A Comms officer called out. “The cruisers Palvist, Seritos, and Cretatumat are reporting multiple hull breaches! Multiple frigates lost from all cruiser battlegroups. I have 17 other frigates…” One of the blue triangles winked out and was replace with an X. “16 other frigates reporting hull breaches and fires.”

The Senior Ship Master’s hands balled into fists. 12 ships lost and 19 others damaged and possibly out of action. 31 ships in total he may not be able to use; a little over 10% of the ships he had.

“Ship Master!” One of the Comms officer cried out. “I have multiple requests for orders from the fleet!”

“Order the forward squadrons to keep firing!” Vitanius yelled. “And somebody get me report on what those aliens just hit us with!”

“The Palvist, Seritos, and Cretatumat are reporting that their kinetic barriers are still intact, Sir.” A Comms officer called out. “It wasn’t a projectile weapon they hit us with.”

“Sir!” One of the Sensor officers called out. “We believe it to be some sort of laser weapon sir”

“But… that’s impossible…” The Fire Control officer said slowly, shocked. “We’re almost 50,000km away…even Salarian lasers only go up to 60 km.”

Vitanius’s fists clenched. Laser technology, the one non-Mass Effect based technology still used in conventional warfare. The only weapon that could pass through kinetic barriers undeterred.

All Council races had laser weapons of one kind or another, but the difficulty of focusing laser beams over long distances meant that they only had a range of 5~6km; meaning they could only be used as high-speed point defense. Salarian lasers used higher frequency light in the ultra-violet spectrum to extend the range of their laser to 10 times that of other Council races, but did so at a massive decrease in fire-rate.

“Sir! Alien ships prow heat signatures are increasing!”

Vitanius’s mind snapped back to the present.

“Senior Ship Master! The fleet is asking for orders!”

“Heat signatures are increasing.” Another Sensor Officer called out. “450K… 500K… Enemy ships will be at the previous temperature before firing in 4.5 minutes!”

The entire bridge staff’s eyes were upon him. Fear. Worry. Disbelief. The emotions of his crew were reflected vividly in their gaze.

The Senior Ship Master remained silent for one moment, gathering up the shards of his shattered confidence.

“… Disperse the fleet.” He said slowly. “Get our ships to increase the distances between them and order all ships to keep up their kinetic barriers.”

“Sir, the kinetic barriers…” one of the Comms officers stammered.

“They won’t protect us from their weapons,” Vitanius said slowly. “but they’ll protect us from the debris.”

“Debris, Sir?”

“The Adsumat will not be the only cruiser we lose today.”

A stunned silence filled the bridge. The admission of further losses from their commanding officer had hit them like a Krogan battle hammer.

“Sir…” One of the bridge staff swallowed loudly before continuing. “What about…”

“If you are about to suggest that we retreat, then hold your breath. Lieutenant.”

The Senior Ship Master looked up at his crew. The proud, straight backed soldiers from mere minutes ago were all drenched in cold sweat; mandibles and head fringes twitched nervously.

Vitanius sighed once, then turned to meet the gaze of his crew. “If we retreat now, we lose the fleet. It took us an hour to get from the Mass Relay to this point in space. Include the time it would take to turn the entire fleet around, and we would be exposing ourselves to enemy fire for a little under 2 hours. What’s more we’ll be exposing our engines to their weapons. They wouldn’t even have to destroy our ships, just our engines. Then they would be able to board us at their leisure, if they didn’t just wait for us to starve to death. We turn around now, and we might as well cut our own guts out to save the alien scientists the trouble when they dissect us.”

“But, their weapons…”

“Are powerful. Far more powerful than we could have ever imagined, but I’d rather die fighting than in an alien prison, or a zoo. Now, get to your stations. We still have a battle to win.”

The bridge staff remained silent for a moment, before saluting and affirming his orders.

Vitanius turned back to the battle-map and watched as his ships moved away from each other. He nodded to himself. At least he wouldn’t be losing any ships from reactor explosions or wreckage. He minimized the map and brought up the hologram of the alien ships. A small timer labelled ‘Estimated Time of Enemy Weapon’s Fire’ appeared next to it. 2 minute and 30 seconds remained on it. Cursing internally, Vitanius looked over the hologram of the alien ship, searching for a vulnerability, an opening, anything. However, all he saw was the cannon on the back of the ship, and the rounded prow of the ship which had fired the laser.

Vitanius blinked. ‘Only the cannon and the ship’s laser?’ The thought hit him like lightning.

“Comms Officer.” He called out.

“Yes Sir?”

“Order the fleet to launch disruptor torpedoes.”

“Sir, it’ll take at least 3 hours for our torpedoes to reach them.”

“It will, but that’s not a problem.”

Quizzical looks were exchanged between the various bridge staff. Disruptor torpedoes were a relatively short-range weapons system. Ships usually closed to a 10,000 km or less before deploying them. Any further, and the battle would be finished by the time the torpedoes impacted.

“The enemy ships don’t have any point defense systems on them.” Vitanius explained. “They’ll have to either shoot down our torpedoes with their main weapon, or rely on their fighter escorts to cover them.” He smirked grimly. “If anything, at least it will give them something else to shoot at other than ships.”

“Aye aye, Sir.” The Comms officer replied before relaying the message to the rest of the fleet. Soon, slow moving dark blue bolts flew out from his ships, leaving electric trails in their wake. Neon lights flashed out from the alien ships, sweeping across the black canvas of space like search lights, and element zero explosions flashed; blue and purple balls of lightening in inky space. Vitanius glared at the battle-map but none of his ships changed status. A brief sigh of relief escaped his lips, before he hardened his features again.

“Deploy all fighters.” Vitanius ordered. “Have them take cover behind the torpedoes. Overwhelm them with our numbers.”

He watched as small arrows exited the squares and diamond on the battle-map; 4 from each of the intact cruisers, and 6 from the Perpetual.

‘6 fighters in each squadron, totaling 180 starfighters against the aliens’ 80.’ Vitanius thought to himself. However, the thought brought no confidence to his mind, and did nothing for his nerves. Instead, a budding sense of worry was blooming itself in his heart, sinking its roots into his brain, breaking his concentration.

‘Would this be enough?’

The question ate away at him as he watched the arrows slowly move towards the alien ships on the battle map.

Another flash of light, and another dozen more torpedoes exploded into balls of blue and purple lightening, as the ship’s guns hummed again sending sparks of orange off into the distance.

The battle had begun.


	5. Tit for Tat

**-OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE - MATERIALS GROUP ARCHIVES MAY 14th, A.D. 2559 0955**  
“Welcome, Kahlee Sanders, and thank you for cooperating with security searches in accordance with JAG 490-0UU. Your access request for the unredacted versions of the C43 Inertia Assisted Coil Gun and C43 Distortive Warhead reviews have been cleared. Please note, although the decommissioning of the security directive Foxtrot Tango Angel 7012 has allowed increased transparency of information regarding Forerunner artifacts, the documents you are about to access are for your eyes only. Non-compliance will breach the Homeland Security Act of 2162; carrying a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.”  
  
…  
  
Review of C43 Inertia Assisted Coil Gun (IACG)  
  
**Abstract**  
  
Recovered from the remains of several of the frigate class alien ‘bugger’ vessels after the battle of the Shanxi-Theta Relay, the C43 Inertia Assisted Coil Gun (C43 IACG) is a coil gun, similar to the UNSC Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC). However, unlike MACs which require just under a kilometer of barrel to accelerate their projectiles to 0.5% the speed of light, the C43 IACG manages to accelerate its projectiles to 0.5% the speed of light with only 300m of barrel. A MAC of comparative length would only be able to achieve maximum muzzle velocity of several hundred kilometers per second with projectiles of similar rest mass.  
  
The C43 IACG accelerates its projectiles to these velocities by increasing the mass of the shot by several orders while it is accelerated through the barrel. As objects with higher mass have higher inertia, they require greater force to accelerate. This allows the C43 IACG to accelerate the slug for a longer time within the barrel than it could with a much lighter one. This results in the extra kinetic energy applied on the slug to be stored as inertia, much like a slingshot stores kinetic energy via the elastic bands of the sling. Once the projectile exits the barrel, it reverts to its original mass, and the stored energy is converted into a forward momentum, accelerating the shot to its maximum velocity almost instantaneously.  
  
The method by which the mass of the slug is controlled is dissimilar to UNSC and Covenant artificial gravity, which merely mimic or annul the effect of gravity through the application of a different force. Forerunner buffer fields were theorized to be the inspiration for this technology, but current data suggests that Forerunner gravitic technology is merely an extrapolation of UNSC and Covenant technology, leading the Materials Group to conclude that this technology is of non-Forerunner origin.  
  
REDACTED The mass affecting generators used in the C43 IACG are dependent on an exotic material with no mass and no charge yet has particle like behavior. No known material has this property, save Sample 2041 which was recovered from the _Mantle’s Approach_. N.B. See report 1411 for review of ‘quantum spacetime folding with particle like behavior’ a.k.a Element Zero. REDACTION END  
  
As the C43 IACG and MAC share the same basic propulsion principles, this mass affecting technology could be incorporated into UNSC MACs in order to achieve greater firing velocities. However, current MAC designs will require several revisions including but not restricted to reconfiguration of starship power supplies and associated networks to compensate for the increases in power consumption due to the mass affecting fields, shielding of the rest of the vessel from the mass affecting fields, and redesigning of coil placements and activation times in order to accommodate acceleration of heavier payloads.  
  
Review of C43 Distortive Warhead (DW)  
  
**Abstract**  
  
Recovered from fighter, corvette, and frigate class alien ‘bugger’ vessels after the battle of the Shanxi-Theta Relay, the C43 Distortive Warhead (DW) has no analogue in UNSC or Covenant arsenals. REDACTED The closest documented analogue would be the Torsion drivers recovered from the wreckage of the _Mantle’s Approach_. However, these weapons are simply scaled up-versions of UNSC and Covenant gravitic technology; suggesting that the C43 DW is non-Forerunner in origin. REDACTION END.  
  
The C43 DW is equipped with a mass affecting generator that creates a localized spacetime bubble upon impact that increases the mass of all objects inside it. This effectively compresses all matter within the bubble, causing both fatigue in all materials within the region, and creating an inertial anchor at the point of impact. REDACTED In this way, it is similar to the Torsion driver; which is capable of fatiguing external parts of a targeted starships, fracturing the hull and allowing for converging beam cannon fire to enter the breach, detonating the starship from the inside. However, where the Torsion drive is merely the means to penetrate a starship’s armor, REDACTION END the C43 DW’s main purpose appears to be as a ship-to-ship warhead; seeing use in alien M58 Archer, M75 Rapier, and ASGM-10 missile analogues.  
  
The potential effects of the C43 DW on UNSC vessels are devastating. Unlike plasma, laser, or projectile weaponry, no materials are removed at the point of impact; leaving crushed hull plating, equipment, and fuel lines which may frustrate future repair efforts. This damaged material may also obstruct damage assessments; meaning damaged components inside the affected area may go unnoticed and cause further complications to the affected starship. The fatigue on the vessel’s superstructure is also a point of concern. A sudden increase in mass at one point of the starship could potentially transmit stress along the connecting superstructure. This may lead to stress fractures appearing in adjacent sections, weakening the starship’s overall integrity. Additionally, warping of a vessel’s superstructure could cause problems for larger starships with intra-ship transit systems. Repair and maintenance crews will have to check all monorail and lift systems at the nearest point of convenience to ensure warping of tracks has not occurred. Finally, the very fact that the C43 DW increases the mass of the affected area creates an imbalance in the starship’s overall weight distribution. Should starships be impacted by a C43 DW during high speed maneuvers, there is a risk that the affected area could drag the starship off-course due to the shift in the starship’s center of gravity. This is particularly dangerous during close-quarter fleet maneuvers, as a sudden change in course could lead to collisions between allied starships.  
  
The C43 DW’s mass affecting generator also acts as a shielding system similar to the ones found on the alien vessels; hereby denoted as ‘kinetic barriers’ to avoid confusion with UNSC, Covenant, and Forerunner energy shields. This kinetic barrier can deflect moderate levels of M1075 autocannon fire and ST/Medusa missiles. However, it is completely vulnerable to directed energy weapons. N.B. See report 0502 for review of ‘inertia induced deflection field’ a.k.a kinetic barrier.  
  
REDACTED Due to the generator requiring Element Zero to function, the Materials Group has no plans to replicate or emulate this warhead. REDACTION END Models of damage assessments between the C43 DW and the Archer family of missiles shows no significant difference between the number of missiles required to destroy unshielded UNSC vessels.  
  
  
**-PFS CRUISER _CRETATUMAT_ JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE 1610 hours**  
  
“Damage report!” Ship Master Serus Riten bellowed over the screech of the ship’s fire alarms.  
  
“We’ve lost contact with sections 3 through 15!” One of the bridge staff shouted back. “Fires detected in all adjacent compartments!”  
  
“What about the hangar bay!”  
  
“The laser went right through it, Sir.”  
  
Serus Riten bowed his head, as his hands gripped the railing in front of him. A holographic representation of the ship showed greyed out sections of the ship, forming a rough diagonal line that passed through the ship from top to bottom at a steep angle. The sections that bordered the grey ones were pulsing orange with fire warnings.  
  
The laser had passed right through the ship; cutting a hole diagonally through the top of the ship and exiting from the hangar bay. He pounded the railing before him and cursed. There had been a total of 12 fighter pilots, 4 shuttle pilots, and almost 80 marines and service crew standing by in the hangar bay; preparing for the eventual ground invasion. Now, almost a quarter of the soldiers aboard his ship had been wiped out; soldiers he had just yesterday chatted with in the mess, before allowing the customary stress-relief sparring that was allowed before missions. Every one of them gone without warning; gone without even stepping foot on alien soil.  
  
“I’ve re-established contact with the engine room!” Another bridge staff member shouted out. “The reactor is still stable!”  
  
“And the Mass Effect core?”  
  
“Undamaged, Sir.”  
  
‘Finally’ Serus thought. ‘A little good news.’  
  
“Ship Master, the Chief Engineer is reporting that we’ve lost several power relays and heat pumps when that laser cut through us, and the remaining ones are beginning to overheat. We have to cut power to some of the ship’s systems.”  
  
The Ship Master grimaced as he watched the Chief Engineer’s own damage report of the _Cretatumat’s_ power system appeared on top of the one before him. The power relays and heat pumps were the ship’s arteries and veins; responsible for re-routing energy from the reactor and bleeding off excess heat from the numerous smaller Mass Effect generators around the ship. Overstressed, they would burst like the blood vessels of a stroke victim, releasing heat and electricity into the ship itself. Several were already nearing red, struggling to bleed off the thermal energy of the Mass Effect generators of the main gun, kinetic barriers, and smaller Mass Effect assisted thrusters used for more precise maneuvers.  
  
“Maintain power to maneuvering thrusters and barriers!” Serus Riten ordered. “We have to keep in formation with the fleet. Shut off the main gun’s Mass Effect generators and inform the fleet we’ll be firing out of cycle.”  
  
“Aye aye, Sir!”  
  
The main gun ejected the iron slug in the barrel prematurely, sending an orange projectile much slower than the others emitted from the surrounding ships hurtling into space. It fired again, but this time there was no orange projectile. The iron slugs were flung out of the barrels earlier than normal, hence less exposed to the intense electromagnetic fields that caused full-powered shots to glow with incandescence from inductive heating.  
  
“Keep launching the disruptor torpedoes. I want long parabolic arcs! Coordinate torpedo flight paths with the frigate flotillas, and make sure their lasers hit only the torpedoes and not us.”  
  
The Fire Control and Comms officers yelled back their affirmatives, and Serus heard the dull thump of the cold-launch systems ejecting the second salvo of disruptor torpedoes from beneath the stubby wing like protrusions on either side of his cruiser. The torpedoes drifted for a moment, travelling away from the ship in an inactive state to avoid detonating near the ship. Then, the torpedoes’ ion engines ignited, and the deep blue glow of the Mass Effect surrounded them as their warheads were primed. Over 30 torpedoes flew out from the cruiser and its supporting frigates; blue streaks against black space, tracing long curved lines away from the ships before heading towards their targets.  
  
A series of neon lights arced out from space for a second, and blue explosions followed in their wake. One beam clipped a frigate just before it ended and tore the ship open. Superheated atmosphere ripped the ship apart from the inside, blowing its guts out as if a bomb had gone off inside it.  
  
“Dammit!” Serus pounded the railing before him. “Notify the _Exigam_! She’s the closest cruiser, and we need her shuttles for search and rescue!”  
  
“Ship Master,” the Comms officer stammered, “the frigate was…”  
  
“I know what happened!” Serus shouted back. “But we don’t leave our own behind! Get that transmission out and re-coordinate torpedo flight paths with the rest of the frigate flotilla! Now! The next salvo comes in less than five minutes!”  
  
The Comms officer nodded and carried out the Ship Master orders.  
  
‘Primitive aliens my ass.’ Serus thought to himself. In 30 minutes, what was supposed to be simple pacification mission had become a fight for survival. 11 ships had been lost in the first alien salvo; mostly from the forward cruiser squadrons Angeion and Barus, which were positioned in the left and middle of the fleet’s front line. 2 out of the 3 middle cruiser squadrons, Eikon, and Zete, were moving up above and below them front line to provide additional mass accelerator and disruptor torpedo fire. The remaining cruiser squadrons in the middle and rear were re organizing to form a flat plane behind the frontline, ready to move up should one of the forward squadrons collapse.  
  
“What’s the situation with those fires.” Serus called out to one of the bridge staff.  
  
“We’ve sealed bulkheads and jettisoned atmosphere where we can.” The bridge staff replied. “Flame suppressants have begun to contain the remaining fires.”  
  
A short sigh of relief escaped the Ship Master’s mandibles. Zero gravity had a strange effect on fires; causing them to burn for longer, while making them harder to put out. Had the fire remained uncontained, it was only a matter of time before it entered one of the atmosphere lines responsible for supplying breathable air around the ship. Should that happen, they would have no choice but to cut off even more sections of the ship until a full maintenance check could be conducted at drydock.  
  
“Get me an update on the main gun.” Serus barked back.  
  
“We’re firing at 3 times our usual fire-rate, and about 6% of our normal muzzle velocity.” The Fire Control officer replied. “Time to impact is between 8 to 10 minutes.”  
  
8 to 10 minutes. Serus mulled over the number in his head. A cruiser with its Mass Effect field at full power could jink in that time. The initial reports had said these aliens had not discovered the Mass Effect, but his faith in intelligence reports was at an all-time low.  
  
“Maintain fire.” Serus ordered. “It’s not much, but those slugs are still flying out at about 90km/s. They’ll do damage if they get through the kinetic barriers.”  
  
“Aye aye, Sir.” the Fire Control officer nodded.  
  
Serus minimized the hologram of the ship and returned to the battle-map. The estimated time before the next alien salvo read 2 minute and 3 seconds remaining. Dots and arrows representing surviving torpedoes from earlier launches and fighters drew closer to the alien frigates. Contact was 2 hours and 52 minutes away.  
  
Serus closed his eyes.  
  
34  
  
That was the number of times the aliens could fire their weapons before the first torpedoes and fighters reached the enemy ships. They’d lost 1 cruiser and 10 frigates in the opening salvos. If the aliens stopped shooting down the torpedoes and began to prioritize their ships again, it would only take 23 salvos to destroy every cruiser in the fleet.  
  
‘No’ the Ship Master thought to himself. ‘Fewer than that. They hit 3 other cruisers, mine included, when they downed the _Adsumat_. The _Cretatumat_ won’t survive another direct hit, and I doubt the others would to. That would leave only the frigates, but if each salvo takes 10 or more frigates with it like the first one did, the entire fleet could be wiped out more than an hour before our torpedoes reach their ships.’ The thought sent small tremors down his arm.  
  
The timer before the next alien salvo passed the minute mark.  
  
‘Spirits…’ he prayed, hoping that the aliens would remain preoccupied with the torpedoes.  
  
  
**-UNSC ANLACE-CLASS FRIGATE _BRINGER OF PROGRESS_ JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE 1617**  
  
Commander Ikran Khoury watched as another salvo of iron slugs impacted against the _Bringer of Progress_ ’s shields.  
  
“Shield status.” He called out to one of the bridge staff.  
  
“All green, Sir.” The Shield Control officer replied. “We can whether this fire for another hour or two at this rate.”  
  
Khoury nodded. The cruiser class alien vessel fired iron slugs at 1% the speed of light, while the other frigate class vessels fired slugs at 0.5% the speed of light. That was about 100 times and 50 times faster than the standard UNSC MAC. However, the 20kg iron slugs the aliens used were 27000 times lighter than the ferric tungsten slugs the UNSC used.  
  
‘Too bad kinetic energy is half the mass of an object times the square of its velocity.’ The Commander thought to himself.  
  
Although much lighter than UNSC slugs, the higher velocity of the alien’s slugs meant that they impacted with the force of about 5.3 kilotons of TNT which was roughly 10 times less than that of the standard MAC. However, Anlace shielding technology was an almost perfect replication of Forerunner shielding; thanks to the wealth of data from the wreckage of the _Mantle’s Approach_ , and although far less powerful than the Forerunner ship's, they could still take a Covenant energy projector beam for a minute. As energy projectors had the destructive potential of 7 to 8 Megatons of TNT per second, the enemy projectiles bounced off of or shattered on their shields like pistol rounds against tank armor.  
  
“Shield cycling timers are set.” The Shield Control officer called out. “Fire Control, you have a 1.3 second firing window opening in 2 minutes.”  
  
“Received.” Fire Control Officer Malin replied. “Setting energy projector exposure time to 1 second. Preliminary firing solutions are being uploaded to central battle-map.”  
  
The holographic battle-map, showing the 40 Anlaces dispersed in a flat plane against the alien fleet, displayed dotted red lines leading from the _Bringer of Progress_ tracing a badly deformed U passing through as many of the aliens’ guided projectiles as possible.  
  
“Synchronizing firing solutions for optimization.” The Comms Officer called out. “Standby for battle-map update.”  
  
Additional dotted red lines were added, each coming from the 39 other Anlaces. A brief computerized check was conducted to ensure no beams over lapped to ensure the most efficient overall targeting solution, and corrections were made to some of the firing solutions.  
  
“Fleet firing solution optimization complete.” Malin called out. “Uploading final firing solutions to the battle-map and all Broadswords. Shield Control, energy projector optical cavity opens in 20 seconds.”  
  
The dotted red lines were replaced with dull red ones, and a timer appeared on the battle-map.  
  
“Received.” The Shield Control officer replied. “All hands, be advised shields dropping in 17 seconds.”  
  
‘The one vulnerability of energy shielding.’ Commander Khoury thought to himself. ‘It works both ways.’  
  
In order to fire, a ship would have to drop a section of its shields. This created brief moments where the ship was undefended; a vulnerability that the UNSC had exploited as often as possible during their war with the Covenant.  
  
“Energy projector firing in 5 seconds.” Malin called out. “Sending final warning to all local Broadswords.”  
  
The timer clocked counted down the last few seconds.  
  
“Firing.”  
  
There was no sound as a neon beam appeared from the front of the ship. The dull red lines on the battle-map were replaced by bright crimson ones; showing active energy beams. Commander Khoury watched as they cut through dozens of holographic torpedoes. No enemy ships or fighters were hit this time. The enemy had been quick to adapt the path of their guided munitions to prevent additional casualties.  
  
“33 enemy guided munitions destroyed.” A Sensor Operator called out. “Total of 12 guided munitions and 6 fighters inbound to the _Bringer of Progress_ with an ETA of 2 hours and 49 minutes.”  
  
“What’s the status of the Y1 and Y2 battlegroups?” Commander Khoury asked.  
  
“Still in transit, Sir.” One of the Comms Officers replied. “They’re reporting heavy reconciliation interference. It might be a while before they arrive.”  
  
The Commander’s eyes narrowed. His battle-group of 40 ships had come out of slip-space a fair distance away from where the battle was taking place. The fact that reconciliation was even an issue was troubling.  
  
“Any potential sources for this interference?” He asked, turning to the Sensor Operators  
  
“None that we know of, Sir. However, the gravimetric sensors have been pinging erratically ever since we engaged the enemy.”  
  
“Explain.”  
  
“We’re getting small blips, as if small objects are popping in and out of existence just before they fire, Sir. There was also a large gravimetric wave when we downed one of their frigates as well.”  
  
Khoury frowned.  
  
Anti-gravity and gravity generators were not a new technology for the UNSC, with such technology being available for civilian use as well. However, their effects tended to be highly localized, often extending no-further than the ships themselves, and were unlikely to be picked up by gravimetric sensors. Covenant gravity-lifts could extend several kilometers from the ship, but even those wouldn’t be detectable from 50 or so Megameters away. Regardless, gravitic technology didn’t cause reconciliation interreference.  
  
On the other hand, slip-space travel had always been rife with uncertainty. Although the new CODEN Series VI slip-space drives were almost as fast and accurate as Covenant slip-space drive, there were times when ships were delayed, or several hundred kilometers off course.  
  
Khoury pinched his beard between thumb and forefinger as he pondered over the situation. The plan had been to engage the enemy fleet and keep them occupied so the other battle-groups could flank the enemy fleet. However, it appeared the age-old adage ‘no plan survives first contact with the enemy’ held true. After a few seconds, the Commander began handing out his orders.  
  
“Comms Officer Jones, inform the rest of the battle-group of the situation. The other battle-groups may be delayed, but that doesn’t mean they won’t show up. We will hold the enemy here until they do so. Order the battle-group to prioritize minimizing damage over destroying the enemy, and buy time until the other battle-groups arrive. I want this to be a low risk operation.”  
  
The Comms Officer acknowledged the order and activated the communication array while Khoury turned to the Petty Officer in charge of crew details and maintenance.  
  
“Get in touch with engineering. I want potential damage assessments of all enemy weapons, especially those guided munitions. They’re two hours away, but I don’t want any surprises when they arrive. Report directly to me once you’re finished.”  
  
“Aye aye, Sir.” The Petty Officer saluted before exiting the bridge.  
  
“Sensor Operators, keep in contact with Flight Control and notify them when the enemies’ guided munitions are an hour away. Also, allocate someone to answer any calls from engineering or the Petty Officer. They’ll need as much data for their analysis as possible. Cooperate with them.”  
  
The most senior Sensor Operator saluted and set about delegating roles to the rest of the staff under his command.  
  
“Flight Control, get in touch with the rest of the battle-group flight controllers. Once enemy guided munitions are 1 hour away, I want all Broadswords to move up and engage the enemy fighters behind them. Make sure our pilots hold the enemy within our firing angles.”  
  
Khoury turned back to the battle-map as the Flight Control officer saluted him. Another wave of alien guided munitions were launched and then subsequently destroyed by the returning fire of his battle-group. A handful of munitions escaped destruction, adding to the slowly growing number flying towards them.  
  
Steven Hackett watched the alien fleet on the battle-map. The enemy ships had originally been in a formation that resembled a rugby scrum, with a forward, second and back row. Now, the second row had split into 3 groups, with 2 merging with the front to form a roughly shaped trapezoidal plane, while the last group had merged with the back.  
  
The front row, which was centered around the alien cruiser, contained most of the enemy ships. The frigates and cruiser fired their guns in concerted volleys, attempting to overload their shields. Guided munitions were launched from the cruiser, and frigates, but mostly from the corvettes simply due to them out numbering the other ships 8 to 1.  
  
90 fighters were spaced out through the guided munitions and moved erratically in zig-zag lines attempting to complicate the energy projector firing solutions.  
  
It was similar to the formations the UNSC had used on the rare occasion open naval combat with the Covenant had been unavoidable, and hence the UNSC was also aware of the formation’s vulnerabilities. Although the Covenant had always preferred brute force to tactics, thus never exploiting the weakness of UNSC formations, placing so many ships to fire in one direction left the ships vulnerable to flanking maneuvers. As the MAC could only point in the same direction of the ship, the only way to return fire would be to slowly turn the ship to face the enemy. This divided the fire of the ships, defeating the purpose of the formation. What made things worse was that only the groups on the outer side could safely return fire, as those inside the group would be firing through allied ships.  
  
“Status report, Lieutenant Hackett.” Commander Khoury ordered.  
  
“6 debris fields forming on the port side of the enemy fleet.” Hackett replied. “2 are large enough for their frigates to take cover in. They’ve dispersed their ships away from it for the moment, but the debris is dense enough to cut down energy projector output by 40% if they take refuge in it.”  
  
Light blue bubbles highlighting the debris fields Hacket mentioned appeared on the battle-map. Such debris fields could be navigational hazards, but also provided useful cover against directed energy weapons and guided munitions. Many UNSC ships had hidden among the wreckage of allied vessels in order to avoid plasma torpedoes, and energy projector beams, while returning MAC fire which would punch through the rubble.  
  
“Keep monitoring those debris fields and notify me if the enemy starts to take advantage of them.”  
  
Hackett saluted the Commander and returned his attention to the battle-map.  
  
The UNSC ships traded another salvo with the enemy before one of the Anlace frigate, _With Patience Rewarded_ , opened a Comm channel with the _Bringer of Progress_.  
  
“This is Lieutenant Commander Jaleh Madani to Commander Ikran Khoury. Lieutenant Commander Madini to Commander Khoury, over.”  
  
“This is Commander Khoury. I read you loud and clear.”  
  
“One of the damaged enemy ships firing at my vessel has begun firing out of sync with the rest of their fleet and at a much faster rate. Forwarding the data to you now. Their shots are covering our firing windows. How should we proceed.”  
  
Khoury looked as the data regarding velocity, estimated mass, and number of projectiles appeared before him. The projectiles were flying at only 3 times the speed of a standard MAC, but they were also being fired at 3 times the rate as the other vessels.  
He cursed internally. By some godforsaken miracle, the damaged ship had accidentally exploited the one weakness of energy shielding. The projectiles would bounce off the _With Patience Rewarded’s_ shields, but she wouldn’t be able to fire either.  
  
However, that wasn’t why the Lieutenant Commander had contacted him. The projectiles weren’t the threat. It was the fact that they had to react to it that was the problem. Ceasing fire here might betray the vulnerability of their energy shields to the enemy. That said, intentionally taking enemy fire, no matter how insignificant, risked damaging the ship. The _With Patience Rewarded_ ’s real mission lay beyond the Mass Relay, not here in UNSC space. Any damage she took here could hamper her effectiveness later on.  
  
“Avoid those projectiles if possible.” he ordered. “Prioritize protecting the ship.”  
  
“Understood, Commander. Madani out.”  
  
Khoury watched as the _With Patience Rewarded_ activated its starboard thrusters and began to move out of the way of the incoming projectiles. It was the best option he could think of. At least, if the enemy did realize the meaning behind this maneuver, the _With Patience Rewarded_ would be able to get another shot in before they were all suppressed. He uttered a silent prayer in his head, hoping that the enemy would not notice the first defensive action the UNSC had taken for the battle.


	6. Victory Defined

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN1: Apologies for the long delay. My job has been hell, and I couldn't summon the strength to write after spending the entire day writing manuals and e-mails, reviewing documents, and providing helpdesk support for the people who don't read the manuals. Anyways, I recently had a week long vacation after 3 months of work where I could pretty much become a vegetable and not do anything, so I recovered and decided to continue this. (Your continued likes and views are greatly appreciated btw.)
> 
> AN2: I don't plan on making this a regular thing, but I was listening to "She rules the battlefield", and "He comes back, again and again" for most of the time I was writing this.

**-PFS DREADNOUGHT _PERPETUAL_ JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE 1629 hours**

Vitanius glared at the battle-map as he watched another salvo of laser fire destroy swathes of torpedoes. The alien ships had continued to whether the fleet’s Mass Accelerator fire for the past several minutes, returning fire only to destroy their torpedoes.

At the moment, the only hope of victory he had was by overwhelming the enemy with disruptor torpedoes and fighters, but that was a two-part gamble. Firstly, he had to hope that the fighters and torpedoes could get through the enemy fighters; which he had no information on. The second part of the gamble was based on the enemy’s firing priorities. He was all too aware that the only reason his ships were standing was because the enemy was preoccupied with destroying the disruptor torpedoes.

“It’s not enough…” he muttered to himself.

The entire fleet had fired over 2000 disruptor torpedoes across 6 salvos. Vitanius could do the mental arithmetic. It was only a matter of time before the frigates depleted their torpedo silos. 8 cruisers and the _Perpetual_ wouldn’t be able to keep up the sustained barrage of torpedo fire needed to occupy the enemy.

The Senior Ship Master’s clenched fist squeezed even tighter. He was in a race against time; whether it was his ship’s ammunition stocks that gave out first, or the enemy’s patience was a matter only the Spirits would know.

“Sir!” A sensor officer called out, interrupting his thoughts. “One of the ships is moving out of formation.”

“Get me a visual!”

The battle-map re-focused on a sector of the battle to the ventral port side of the _Perpetual_. A single enemy ship flared its port side thrusters, shifting it sideways as it fired its laser. Several starboard thrusters then roared into action, decelerating the ship as the port side thrusters cut out and additional ventral thrusters let loose blue streams of gas or plasma; forcing the ship downwards.

Vitanius recognized the motion. Although much slower, it was similar to the evasive maneuvers used by their ships when avoiding unguided munitions, or Mass Accelerator fire from beyond effective range.

But, there was nothing for the ship to avoid. The disruptor torpedoes were still 2 hours away, and Mass Accelerator slugs were still impacting the alien ship’s shields.

“Get me firing solutions of all our ships firing on that alien cruiser.” Vitanius called out. He didn’t know whether the movements had any real meaning, but his current tactics weren’t much better than throwing everything in his ships, including the mess-hall sink, at the enemy.

The aliens had remained in rigid formation, weathering their attacks as if it were nothing but a meager annoyance, while returning fire with weapons that would obliterate them in a single shot. This was the first hint of a defensive action by this enemy.

“Firing solutions received, Sir. Displaying them on the battle-map.”

The battle-map zoomed out and re-focused on both his ships and the aliens; distances were re-scaled and the majority of the empty space between them was omitted so both could fit on the same screen. 3 of their cruisers fired upon the enemy while the surrounding frigates launched additional disruptor torpedoes. Dull orange lines indicating Mass Accelerator firing solutions pulsed brightly as the ships’ guns fired. 2 lines pulsed at a regular pace of once per second in time with the rest of the fleet. The 3rd’s flickered like a broken light fixture.

‘The _Cretatumat_ ’ Vitanius thought to himself. It was one of the cruisers damaged in the opening salvo. He brought up the status report on the ship with a touch of his omni tool and grimaced. The ship had a hole going right through it and was barely holding together. The commanding officer onboard had decided to prioritize mobility over firepower, but with the damage to the ship’s superstructure, but Vitanius wasn’t sure the ship would hold together if forced to take rapid maneuvers.

“Isolate the _Cretatumat_ ’s Mass Accelerator fire.” He ordered.

“Sir, the slugs are too cold. I can keep track of them up to 50km, but any further and they blend into the background heat of the torpedoes, fighters, and enemy ships.”

“Then get me a projection, a model, ANYTHING! I want to know if the enemy is avoiding the _Cretatumat_ ’s fire!”

“Aye aye, Sir!”

The _Cretatumat_ ’s firing solution line was replaced with a stream of dots; projections calculated from the data provided by the ship itself. Some of them missed the alien ship, but not all of them. A few even hit dead center, but there was no explosion or cloud of debris from a hull impact; meaning the slug had never reached the ship.

‘Damn!’ Vitanius cursed to himself. He had hoped the reason the alien ships had moved was because their kinetic barriers were unable to stop the slower projectiles being fired by the _Cretatumat_.

Mass Effect kinetic barriers were good at stopping faster, low mass objects. However, slowly moving high mass objects could push through them. This was the weakness disruptor torpedoes exploited, and the reason they proved superior to Mass Accelerators at short to middle range combat. It had taken decades of research and improvement by the Turians to find the right balance of Mass Effect field strength and thickness to stop projectiles moving at a wide variety of velocities. His hope had been that the aliens had been unable to do the same.

‘Then why would they avoid the _Cretatumat_ ’s fire?’

The question remained in Vitanius’s mind. Evasive maneuvers like those displayed by the alien were both fuel expensive and dangerous. If the ship lost control during such a maneuver, it could expose its flank to the enemy, presenting a bigger target for weapon’s fire.

It didn’t make sense. Why would this one ship need to avoid Mass Accelerator fire when the rest did not?

Vitanius’s eyes widened as a horrid thought hit him.

“Get me a timeline of the last 3 enemy salvos.”

“Sir?”

“I want the firing timing of the enemy ships to the microsecond. Then, overlay it with the projected impact timings of our Mass Accelerator fire.”

The bridge staff exchanged quizzical looks with each other before acknowledging and following Vitanius’s orders.

40 grey lines, like video play bars appeared on the battle-map. Segments turned orange, showing the times the alien lasers were active, and a timeline appeared on the bottom. Red dots denoting Mass Accelerator impacts appeared on top of the grey lines.

Vitanius’s jaw tightened, and the railing in front of him groaned under his grip.

No dots overlapped the orange segments. Alone, that fact could have been put down to coincidence, but there was one merciless piece of data that turned Vitanius’s horrid thought, into a grim certainty.

It was a small difference, merely 0.05 seconds, but the alien ship being fired on by the _Cretatumat_ had fired out of sync with the rest of the alien fleet.

In an ironic way, Vitanius’s original presumption had come true.

The enemy had not obtained mass effect technology. Instead, they had developed a different method to achieve the same goal.

For a ship with kinetic barriers, there would be no reason to delay their fire. Lasers passed through kinetic barriers unhindered. But the aliens hadn’t done that. They had waited for a moment, a moment where nothing would impact the ship, to fire. That fact answered the question that had struck Vitanius moments ago.

‘What if those aren’t kinetic barrier?’

A simple question that overturned his original assumptions and extinguished any hopes of victory.

Disruptor torpedoes functioned by overwhelming the mass effect fields of kinetic barriers by creating ‘heavy’ mass effect fields around the torpedo itself, effectively punching through the kinetic barrier to reach their target. But, if they impacted on the alien’s shields and failed to penetrate, then the mass effect field generated by the torpedo would hit nothing but empty space.

‘If those aren’t kinetic barriers, then there’s no guarantee the disruptor torpedoes will have any effect. Not only that, but if they need to lower their shields to fire, then that means that even laser weapons can’t penetrate them. Worse, there’s no guarantee that our Mass Accelerators are even affecting them.’

Impregnable defenses, and overwhelming firepower. The enemy’s sword and shield were better than his own.

‘Then… the only option is retreat.’

Vitanius closed his eyes. Outmatched and outgunned, in open space with no features to take advantage of; no planetoids to hide behind or maneuver around, he knew he could not win. That left only retreat. The minimization of losses, and…

‘We must inform the Hierarchy and the Council.’

Vitanius knew the crux of his defeat was the incomplete information he acted upon. If the next fleet to face these aliens acted on the same information, then the result would be the same. The only way to avoid this was to retreat to the Mass Relay and warn the rest of the Council races about what happened here.

‘But… retreating here is suicide.’

Nothing had changed since the start of the battle. Turning tail and running to the Mass Relay would result in death or capture. Splintering the fleet and running in random directions to avoid annihilation would buy them time, but in levo-protein dominated space and with the only known Mass Relay firmly under enemy control, the most likely fate that was left to any ships that escaped would be starvation.

Vitanius glared at the battle-map. The enemy remained focused on destroying the disruptor torpedoes, firing in between Mass Accelerator impacts.

He blinked.

‘Of course… that’s it!’

The enemy’s shields were stronger than the kinetic barriers his ships possessed, but that overwhelming defense had a single weakness.

‘The impenetrable shield can never meet the unstoppable spear.’

To fire, each ship would have to drop its shields for a moment. In that moment, it would be exposed to everything and anything.

‘and… these aliens will not take that risk.’

Their firing patterns prioritized the disruptor torpedoes over them. Even though there was no guarantee that the torpedoes would work, they prioritized them over the ships firing Mass Accelerators.

That showed 2 things.

One; the enemy didn’t know whether the disruptor torpedoes were a threat or not.

Two; the enemy prioritized their own safety over destroying their enemy and avoided risks.

“Order all ships to begin a fighting retreat!” Vitanius barked. “and increase the fire-rate of all ships. I don’t care how far the power output drops. Suppress the enemy as much as possible!”

The bridge crew looked startled for a moment, before carrying out his orders.

A fighting retreat; a tactically coordinated retreat where the fighting force would continue combating the enemy while retreating. It was an ancient tactic for the Turian space forces. Although still used by ground troops, the ranges involved in space battles meant even a fraction of a degree could be the difference between a direct hit and a complete miss. Firing a Mass Accelerator while activating the forward thrusters often lead to microscopic shifts in direction from vibrations from the thrusters, or slight inequalities in the amount of fuel expelled. This made Mass Accelerator fire inaccurate, especially at the ranges Vitanius was engaging the enemy at.

Not only that, but any projectiles that missed would remain a threat to people and planets forever. However, this was not Council space, any missed shots would not affect them in the future.

‘Still… I never thought I’d be re-using a tactic from the Krogan rebellions.’

Vitanius grimaced as he remembered the documentaries he watched at school. Lines of ugly dull orange ships with curved sloped prows; like the cranial plates of the aliens that crewed them. Each ship’s hull was splattered with black scorch marks and patches of brown; battle scars of hastily repaired hull breaches. Their broadsides bristled with batteries of guns and boarding craft launch bays. Stacked on top of each other in staggered wall formations, they charged Turian ships to punch through their lines and unleash their cargo of boarders and bullets among their ranks.

The humming of the _Perpetual_ shifted as the main guns decreased the strength of the Mass Effect fields holding back the iron slugs inside the barrel.

“Senior Ship Master, your orders have been relayed to the rest of the fleet.” The Comms Officer reported.

“Good.” Vitanius nodded. “How long until we reach the Mass Relay?”

“1 hour and 40 minutes, Sir.” A different officer replied.

‘1 hour and 40 minutes.’ Vitanius repeated mentally. That was the time they needed to survive. Once they reached the Mass Relay, he would win. Even if the enemy followed them through, in Council space he could safely scatter the fleet to avoid annihilation. With well documented space routes, and known sources of dextro-protein, any ships that escaped would survive to inform the Hierarchy and Council of what happened.

‘But… it’s going to be close.’

If the enemy ignored their suppressing fire, they could decimate his fleet in 23 salvos. That meant in an hour and fifty-five minutes he could lose every ship under his command. From the projection, it seemed they had 15 minutes to spare, but this was a gamble.

If the enemy could increase their fire-rate like his ships had…

If the enemy could destroy more ships with each salvo…

If the enemy fighters could take down their ship…

The sheer number of uncertainties robbed Vitanius of any hopes that he could rely on the 15 minutes he had to spare.

‘Then the only thing I can do is buy more time.’

Vitanius returned his attention to the battle-map; brow furrowed, and mandibles clenched in concentration.

He would lose this battle, but he could still sway the war in the Hierarchy’s favor.

**-UNSC ANLACE-CLASS FRIGATE _BRINGER OF PROGRESS_ JANUARY 25th, 2157 CE 1638**

“Commander, the enemy fleet has begun to retreat.”

Ikran Khoury furrowed his brow at the news. “Any update on the other battle-groups?”

“Still in transit. ETA unknown, Sir.”

“Sir, enemy firing pattern have changed! Bringing up ETIs on the battle-map.”

‘When it rains it pours…’ Khoury thought to himself.

The enemy had figured out the weakness of the energy shield, but in doing so they had realized that the shielding technology they used differed to their own.

‘and the moment they realized they were outmatched, they run.’

“Cowards.” He muttered under his breath.

However, this complicated things. From a tactical perspective, this retreat posed no threat to his ships. The increased fire-rate came at a disproportional drop in power. Even if they couldn’t return fire, their shields would withstand the coming storm of metal.

‘But, from a strategic perspective…’

It would be disastrous. As he had said to his Lieutenant Commanders at the beginning of the battle, the enemy’s intel needed to die with them on this side of the Mass Relay.

“How long until the enemy reaches the Mass Relay?”

“At their current velocity, the enemy fleet will reach the Mass Relay in 1 hour and 30 to 50 minutes, Sir.”

The Commander grunted. 1 hour and 30 minutes. That was the time until his defeat. With no guarantee that the other battle-groups would arrive in time, he would have to annihilate or disable the enemy fleet in the next hour and a half with the ships he had.

Khoury turned his gaze to the battle-map, and smiled.

“Comms Officer, order all ships to prepare to fire on the enemy ships. Maximum projections times.”

The enemy may have identified the weakness of energy shielding, but…

‘In their haste to put us on the back foot, they’ve opened a hole in their own defenses.’

Increasing their weapon’s fire rate decreased their firepower, which meant the speed of the projectile would drop as well. This created a gap in the rain of metal pelting them; and Khoury would not let this go to waste.

“Prioritize all enemy vessels corvette class and under. Wipe out their more mobile forces.”

Not only that, he knew the next step the enemy would take.

Once the enemy learned his ships could not attack and defend at the same time, then it was only a matter of time before they would attempt to close with smaller more mobile vessels which could slip under the shields when they opened to fire.

It was a tactic the UNSC had used with Longswords to conduct retaliatory bombing runs on Covenant battlecruisers as they incinerated allied frigates.

On top of that, the smaller ships would create smaller debris fields, reducing the number of obstacles their energy projectors would have to penetrate, preserving the kill potential of his ships even as the battle continued.

But, even then, Khoury knew his victory was not absolute.

The momentary opening in the enemy suppressing fire would close, meaning there would be far fewer opportunities to fire from now on. The enemy guided munitions were not completely eradicated, and their fighters continued to close on them.

‘and if the enemy takes the next move I expect them too… things will get difficult.’

With his current tactics, he would not lose a single ship, and this enemy fleet would be defeated here. However, he could not guarantee their annihilation.

‘Then, we have no choice but to change our tactics.’

“Comms Officer! Begin broadcasting my words to all ships in the battle-group!”

“Yes Sir!”

Until now Khoury prioritized the survival of his ships above all else, but that was not out of self-preservation or fear.

“Attention all vessels of battle-group X1. This is Commander Ikran Khoury of the _Bringer of Progress_!”

He had wanted to keep delays and losses to a minimum. Their mission had not even begun. Losing ships here would not only decrease their resources for the mission, but wreck moral. They would be diving deep behind enemy lines with no hope of reinforcement, resupply, or rescue. In such stressful circumstances, a weakened heart could be as dangerous as a bullet to the head.

“The enemy has learned that we cannot shield ourselves and fire at the same time and has begun to modify their tactics to compensate.”

However, the conditions had changed. The two other battle-groups could no longer be relied upon, and the enemy had begun to adjust to their tactics.

“They have also begun a fleet-wide retreat to the Mass Relay. We cannot allow them to do so. If a single ship gets through that Mass Relay, the enemy will learn of our weapons, our defenses, and the weaknesses of both.”

On the scales of battle, he had weighed the advantage of a destroyed enemy ship against the costs and delays incurred by a damaged ally, and the damaged ally had outweighed the destroyed enemy. But, on the strategic level, the scales had flipped. A single escaped enemy would far outweigh even a destroyed allied ship.

“In under an hour, the enemy has already begun to adapt to our technology. If they reach the Mass Relay, it will give the enemy weeks if not months to prepare counter-tactics and technologies against us.”

Khoury had watched countless human ships burn under the firepower of Covenant plasma torpedoes as waves of Archer missiles detonated harmlessly on their energy shields, but he had also watched those same ships blown to pieces by havoc nukes deployed by Longswords on suicide bombing runs; diving beneath the Covenant shields as they fired, before crashing through the thin atmospheric shielding covering the hangar bays and detonating their payload inside the ship itself. Humanity had already proven the danger a technologically inferior enemy could possess.

“Every ship we destroy buys us time. Time that the enemy will be unprepared. Time that the enemy remains ignorant. Time that will be wasted at their expense and to our benefit.”

Now, the shoe was on the other foot. In this moment, humanity was the one with the advantage, but that was not an eternal guarantee.

“The other battle-groups are delayed. We cannot rely on them to assist us, and the enemy is on the move. In a little over an hour and a half, this battle will end, regardless of the number of ships the enemy has.”

Khoury stood tall, his breath swelled as he prepared his order.

“All ships! Prioritize the destruction of enemy vessels! I repeat! The destruction of the enemy fleet is the primary objective! Annihilate every ship before you! Not one alien returns to friendly space this day! Damage control is secondary!”

A short pause, and 39 affirmatives returned.

“Battle-group X1 will now maintain their current distance with the enemy. Prepare for enemy flanking maneuvers and move all fighter forward parallel to enemy firing corridors to engage enemy fighters and guided munitions.”

Again 39 affirmatives returned, and 120 fusion drives roared to life.

“Not one ship returns through the Mass Relay. NOT ONE!”

And 40 energy projectors fired.

40 neon beams, blinding white tinged with red and purple, traveled past the disruptor torpedoes glowing dark blue in the black of space, blinded the Turian fighter pilots as they passed by their craft, and cut apart the Turian frigates.

For 20 seconds, the streams passed through Turian ships with mechanical efficiency, only pausing long enough to cut through them before shifting immediately to the next closest target. Neon beams zigzagged through the Turian fleet, and the empty void was filled with burning globes of orange and purple. 63 explosions bloomed in the blackness, as the energy projectors flickered out.

“Get me the Petty Officer and Engineering.” Khoury muttered as he watched the destruction on the battle-map.

“I need an update on the enemy guided munitions.”

One of the bridge staff nodded, and set-up an internal channel to the Engineering deck.

**Author's Note:**

> The origins of Element Zero, and the way energy projectors function are modified.


End file.
